(This post was submitted by a frequent commentator to thedomains.com who goes by “Cartoonz” who described himself as follows: “an International Man of Mystery whose many projects include KHN.com, providing some of the finest Nutritionals on the planet”. I do know him well and he has been involved in the domain business for a long time)
Bing has a map feature, maybe you’ve seen it, maybe not.
Maybe you figured it was just a clone of Google maps, MapQuest, whatever.
But Bing has features that they don’t have.
Seems somebody took the cool idea of Satellite Images to a new resolution for Bing.
Check it out.
Try the “Birds Eye View” (different from Aerial) of your house and tell me that isn’t far better than Google maps or even Google Earth for most places.
I’ve been checking out foreclosure auctions of properties all over the place and I’ve found this new tool incredibly useful.
That is the end of the guest post.
Now I usually, almost never play with Google maps and haven’t checked out bing.com maps until I read this post.
I think that Cartoonz is on to something.
If you type in “Loews Hotel Miami Beach” for example you will see a big difference between Google and Bing.
On Google you will see PPC ads off the left of the map but no information about the hotel.
On Bing you see a listing for the hotel, its offical website, its address and phone number and a “book it” icon.
On Bing you can clearly see where the hotel is on the map and with just 1 more click you can get directions to the hotel.
The satellite photos on bing are easier to get to and looks better than Google’s. Bing.com also has 3-D Map options for viewing.
You can read more on Bing Maps by clicking here.
Francois says
The sample you give is very good.
But if I check where I live, not only Google maps can zoom the satellite view really much more than Bing but the “Birds eye view” is not available there, look likes it’s only available at the center of the city.
So probably depending where one want to watch sometimes one is better and sometimes the other. A good thing to know 🙂
Thanks to your friend for the tip and to you for have shared.
My name says
Another interesting thing: Most of the MS mapping tool features work only with, guess what? !
Microsoft Internet Explorer!, the most buggy and security-holes featured browser.
When MS will learn that open systems are needed ! argh!
Cheers !
wannadevelop.com says
Been using msft birds eye view since late 2005 or so heavily since I’m into real estate as well.
Nothing really new… 🙂
Ed says
i agree the bing zoom sucks
wones says
Bing is great, but everyone naturally starts with Google, thats the problem.