Bing Maps

[Alex]

FYI:

When you type in maps.live.com, you are taken to http://www.bing.com/maps/. Bing replaced live.com overall.

Unfortunately this means, that like mapquest maps, the window for maps is now wide-screen with significant space allocated to top and bottom margins. The bird's eye view and other options however remain.

[akotchi]

^  I just noticed this today.  Who is Bing?

[WillWeaverRVA]

No clue, but Bing is Microsoft's latest attempt to compete with Google. Odds are they picked it because it seems like a simple yet catchy name.

[agentsteel53]

typo for bung.

[Michael]

Unfortunately this means, that like mapquest maps, the window for maps is now wide-screen with significant space allocated to top and bottom margins. The bird's eye view and other options however remain.

I don't get a widescreen layout there at all.  It looks like Live Search Maps with new graphics.  Just replace the word "Live" with "Bing" for Microsoft's former "Live" services.

[vdeane]

For stuff other than search that's exactly what happened.

[Hellfighter]

bing is just the new name for windows live, that's it.

[deathtopumpkins]

Not to mention Bing just sounds frankly retarded... But Google is better in every way anyway, so I never much bother with Live/Bing.

[froggie]

Not better in EVERY way.  There are three advantages that Live (sic Bing) has:  first, in many areas (especially rural areas) they have higher-resolution aerial imagery, even if it's older imagery from Terraserver.  Second, they have that "aerial view", which IMO is better than Google's Street View if you're trying to get the bigger picture.  Third, Bing shows county lines.....Google Maps doesn't (and is one of my biggest peeves with Google Maps).

That said, I tend to stick with Google Maps under normal conditions.

[Truvelo]

I've always found Live Maps to be slow in the past so I've used Google but since the changeover to Bing it's a lot more responsive without waiting ages for the maps to load.

The only problem I find with Bing is although more areas are covered in high resolution the imagery tends to be much older. For example take a look here and notice the development around Coton Park Drive and Central Park is just fields on the aerial view. These streets have been there for around five years.

[Hellfighter]

The doorbell goes... BING! 

[WillWeaverRVA]

first, in many areas (especially rural areas) they have higher-resolution aerial imagery, even if it's older imagery from Terraserver.  Second, they have that "aerial view", which IMO is better than Google's Street View if you're trying to get the bigger picture.

Those are key reasons why I opt for Bing/Live Maps over Google in certain circumstances. There are some cases (though fairly uncommon) where Google Street View does not cover a particular area that IS covered by Bing's aerial view, which is a decent fallback option.