Microsoft just released the “Bing” application for iPhone and it is a solid effort.  It was voice search that is similar to the Google app, and Maps implementation that is similar to Google Maps on the phone.

It’s a free app, so it’s certainly worth downloading and trying out.  Chris Pendleton has a nice writeup of it on the Bing Community blog, where he highlights some the new features on it.  Most of the features are similar to the pre-installed Google Maps, but the voice search in Bing Maps is a slick feature that Google Maps doesn’t have.  The rest of the features are almost identical to the Google Maps app.

So which should you use? It depends what you do with it.  In my case, I typically use it for real-time traffic.  I’ll occasionally do a search on it, but usually just want to see which which interstate I should avoid.  Below is a side-by-side look at the two apps showing real-time traffic around Atlanta.  Google Maps is on the left, Bing on the right:

It’s not even close!  Bing has all kinds of shading and blurring, which looks very nice, but makes it a pain to see what the colors are.  Is that a yellow, or the road color?  Is that orange in there?  It’s quite a mess.

Google’s may look more childish, but it’s far easier to see.  If I want a quick look at the traffic, I’ve got it.

The Bing app is pretty great, and overall I’m very impressed with it.  However, I’ll keep using Google Maps (for now), simply because it does a better job for what I need.

Post from: Digital Earth Blog

Bing releases iPhone app with nice Maps implementation

Less than two weeks after Microsoft launched “Streetside” imagery to compete with Google’s StreetView, MapQuest has done the same.  They call it “360 View”, and it’s remarkably similar to Microsoft and Google’s offerings.

Like many of the “new” features on MapQuest lately, it’s far behind what Google has already done, and it’s not nearly as good.  Not only is their coverage area a fraction of what Google has done, but the quality of the imagery doesn’t seem to be as sharp.  It’s not horrible, but it’s a bit disappointing.

They cover approximately 45 cities in the United States, though the depth of coverage is rather shallow.  I’d expect that to improve over time.

Check it out by visiting MapQuest.com, then clicking the blue “360 View” icon in the upper-right corner of the map.  You’ll want to zoom out pretty far to find the available cities.

(via Mapperz)

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MapQuest launches its own StreetView clone: “360 View”

An article over on Screenwerk today seems to think that Microsoft may start powering the engine behind MapQuest, similar to how they power the search results for Yahoo.

It would make a lot of sense.  Tons of people still use MapQuest, but the technology is getting rather stale.  Putting Bing’s power behind all of those MapQuest eyeballs would be a win for both companies, and it would create a better experience for the end user.

Of course, this is all just speculation at this point, simply because it seems so logical.  Do you think it’ll happen? Should it happen?

Post from: Digital Earth Blog

Bing to take over MapQuest? It’s possible.

When Microsoft launched Streetside a few days ago (a direct competitor to Google’s StreetView), I wondered how they could possibly catch up with the huge amount of coverage that Google already has in place.  Their answer: Navteq.

Navteq has vehicles on the road all the time, collecting road data (speed limits, bridge heights, etc).  Microsoft plans to “strap a few cameras on their vehicles to record some photos”.  It certainly seems like a great way to start playing catch-up.  I still imagine it’ll be quite a while until they have anywhere close to as much imagery as Google, but this gives them a solid plan to start gaining some ground.

They also revealed that they’ll be doing monthly releases of new Streetside imagery, similar to their monthly aerial/satellite releases.  Those releases tend to be rather impressive is their coverage, so we’ll see if their Streetside releases can match that.

Like most of these kinds of battles, the winner will be you.  Both companies will work hard to add better features and greater coverage, and we get to reap the benefits.  Kinda nice.

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Microsoft teams with Navteq to expand their Streetside coverage

Microsoft has been playing catch-up to Google in the mapping world for a while.  Most of their “new” features are things that Google has had for a while.  Today they caught up with a few more, and even surpassed Google with a few of them.

You can read the full list of new items on the Bing Maps Blog, or get TechCrunch’s take on it.  However you look it, though, it’s a pretty sweet upgrade.  Here’s some of the highlights:

Silverlight Required: While Microsoft obviously trumps this as a positive thing, I’m not a convinced that forcing users to download a new piece of software is a great thing to have.  Of course, Google makes you download the entire Google Earth package, so I guess it’s fair.

Streetside vs. StreetView: An almost identical replica of Google’s StreetView, but with far less coverage.  It does some neat things to smooth the transitions between frames, but it’s very similar.

Enhanced Bird’s Eye: They’ve tweaked the Bird’s Eye view to show 3D models in with the imagery.  It’s a somewhat odd effect, but it works really well.  Bird’s Eye is the one big thing they’ve had over Google for the past few years, so it’s understandable that they’d try to extend that lead.

Photosynth: They’ve brought photosynth right into Bing Maps, with pretty nice integration.

They’ve added a lot of other neat things, but those are the ones that jumped out at me.  As Chris Pendleton says at the end of his post “I’d say at the very least things in the online mapping world just got a little more interesting wouldn’t you say?“.

I agree.

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Bing Maps launches a ton of new features

A couple of quick links today:

Imagery update in Google Earth: Just two weeks since their last one, Google has pushed out another imagery update.  It’s not a huge one, but it covers small parts of many countries.

New 3D imagery in Google Earth: Google has started using StreetView imagery in some cities to create lifelike facades in the downtown areas.  The result is stunning.  Check out the video below to see how it looks:

Bing “StreetView” coming soon? It looks like Microsoft may be planning to bring a StreetView-like competitor to Bing Maps.  The image on the right (via StreetViewFun) shows a Bing-labeled van driving around Vancouver gathering street-level imagery.

Considering the Winter Olympics start in Vancouver in a few months, I’d expect we’ll see the results of the imagery before then.

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New Google Earth imagery/3D, Bing StreetView coming soon

We told you a few months ago that Switzerland wasn’t pleased with the new StreetView imagery in their country.  Now they’re going to sue Google in an attempt to get the imagery removed.  Google intends to fight the case.

The first step will be interesting — Google may be required to remove the imagery from Switzerland until a ruling is made.  The order has not come out yet, but could come soon.  Hanspeter Thuer, the federal data protection commissioner in Switzerland, has asked the tribunal to force Google to take the images offline.

The outcome of this case will certainly have huge ramifications on the legality of StreetView in the rest of the world.  Other countries have been displeased with it, and if Switzerland is successful in getting the imagery removed it could cause a small ripple effect to other countries.

This will certainly be a story to watch.

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Switzerland takes Google to court over StreetView

Microsoft has just dropped a nice imagery update on Bing Maps, covering around 180,000 sq. km.  This update is focused heavily in Europe, in the following countries:

• Bulgaria (1,225 sq. km)
• Czech Republic (10,808 sq. km)
• Estonia (1,418 sq. km)
• Hungary (23,840 sq. km)
• Latvia (12,763 sq. km)
• Lithuania (9,681 sq. km)
• Poland (24,912 sq. km)
• Romania (24,435 sq. km)
• Russian Federation (15,636 sq. km)
• Slovakia (2,018 sq. km)
• Slovenia (314 sq. km)
• Switzerland (6,227 sq. km)
• Turkey (45,443 sq. km)

As usual, there’s no new 3D to be found, but it looks to be a very nice update.  Be sure to check out the Bing Maps World Tour to see the full details.

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New imagery release for Bing Maps

Google has just released a ton of new StreetView imagery; Mexico, the Netherlands, Hawaii and various other places.  [details: Google Earth Blog]

Bing Maps has added a few nice features. They now have draggable routes and some new navigation features.  Nothing groundbreaking, but certainly solid updates.  [details: Bing search blog]

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New StreetView imagery released and some new features for Bing Maps

We’ve seen a couple of big imagery releases in the past few days:

Google Earth has updated various imagery all over the world.  You can read details on the Google Earth Blog, or view this page to see the updated areas via the Google Earth Plug-in.  Here are some neat things that users have already found in the fresh imagery.

Bing Maps has updated imagery in the US, UK and Canada.  In particular, they’ve added a ton of fresh imagery in Vancouver in anticipation of the 2010 Olympics, which begin in February.  You can use the Bing Maps World Tour application to see all of the updated areas.

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Big imagery releases for Google Earth and Bing Maps