Bing Maps (previously also named Live Search Maps, Windows Live Maps, Windows Live Local, and MSN Virtual Earth) is an online web mapping service provided by Microsoft as a part of the Bing suite of search engines and powered by the Bing Maps for Enterprise framework.
On roughly a monthly basis, Microsoft and Bing’s map frequently updates and expands the geographic areas on earth covered by their imagery. Each new map imagery release typically contains more than 10TB of imagery updates. However, the necessary time-lapse before images are updated means that aerial and Bird’s-Eye images for a particular location can sometimes be several years out-of-date. You may experience these delays mainly in the places that have undergone rapid recent development or experienced other dramatic changes since the imagery shot, such as areas affected by natural disasters.
The users of Bing maps can browse and search topographically-shaded street maps for many cities worldwide. Bing Maps include specific exciting points, such as underground stations, sports stadiums, theatres, and other facilities.
Using Bing maps, it is also easily possible to browse public user-created points of interest. Map search results can cover public collections, businesses, types of businesses, locations, or even people.
Bing Maps
Tip 1.: Currently, Bing Maps provides maps & level-wise layouts of over 5300 venues worldwide. You may be interested in some of them.
Tip 2.: Driving directions. Bing map users may get driving directions between two or more selected locations.
There are five well-known street map views available on Bing maps these days: Road View, Aerial View, Bird’s Eye View, Street Side View, and 3D View.
Road view on Bing map is the default/original map view and displays vector imagery of roads, buildings, and the surrounding geography. In cooperation with Navteq, the Bing framework licenses its mapping data for rendering the default road map. But Navteq is not the only data provider for the Bing maps because road view maps are also generated based on alternative data providers in certain parts of the world.
For example, you may see and use road data from the Collins Bartholomew London Street Map when you view London, UK. In all parts of the United Kingdom, road data from the Ordnance Survey can also be displayed. On the other hand, a Bing Maps app is also available, but in this case, the Bing map will display actual road data from OpenStreetMap. Aerial view overlays satellite imagery onto the map and highlights roads and significant landmarks for easy identification amongst the satellite images. Since November 2010, OpenStreetMap mappers have been able to represent Bing Aerial as a map background.