Microsoft parts clouds over Bing Maps with massive sat pic upgrade

Microsoft has jazzed up Bing Maps with an extra 13 million square kilometers of high-res satellite shots and ocean floor imagery. Oahu, Hawaii before and after Maps update Oahu, Hawaii before and after Maps update Ballmer and co have sourced data about the ocean's bathymetry - the underwater equivalent of topography - from …

[Tom 7]

Even the low res pictures

were better than the maps - most roads and houses don’t seem to exist round here according to a couple of estate agents with plonk you in bing maps of grey next to greyness.

[Elmer Phud]

Re: Even the low res pictures

Just had a look.

Ooh, next door got rid of that motor three years back.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Even the low res pictures

Except the pictures of low level stuff aren't satellite, they're taken from planes.

[Silverburn]

Bing Maps?

Bing has maps?

I'm not sure if I should be excited or not...is it any better than Google maps?

And is it better than Apple Maps? (no, don't answer that)

[david bates]

Re: Bing Maps?

Bing ALSO has the entire suite of Ordinance Survey maps...very useful.

[Irongut]

Re: Bing Maps?

Definitely better than Apple Maps, and sometimes better than Google. In particualr their orthophotos taken by aircraft are very good.

[Frank Bough]

Re: Bing Maps?

I think that needs to be qualified - definitely better PHOTOGRAPHY than Apple Maps, way better than Google where I live - sharper, ortho and newer.

[Matthew 3]

Curious fact

With this ever-increasing level of detail and sophistication to mapping the entire world's surface it is odd that the first thing anyone does with it is to take a look at the outside of the building they're currently sitting inside.

[Harvey Trowell]

Re: Curious fact

It's not odd, I was just checking to see if the big red "You Are Here" arrow is working yet. It never is though. Sometimes I can see a blue dot blinking in the vicinity, but that's not me, so where am I? Buggered if I can work it out... Google, Apple, Bing, throw me a frickin' bone here. Cheers.

[Roland6]

Re: Curious fact

Agree, it's not odd - good for a sanity check.

On Bing just now I get for my address:

Maps: Full details of roads at all zoom levels

Birds Eye: Same image of houses etc. at all levels (okay at highest resolution poor quality and very grainy)

Aerial: Image of houses etc., but zoom in and a t the highest zoom level the houses disappear and are replaced by the green fields etc. that were last seen in the late 1990's !!

[ukgnome]

ocean floor imagery???

Yeah, because sometime soon I plan to drive there.

[Dan 55]

Re: ocean floor imagery???

You probably will do if you blindly follow the turn-by-turn satnav instructions.

[Anonymous Coward]

Bing !

Could find it's own arse using both hands and a torch. Love or hate them, Google finds what you want.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Bing !

So long as it's on a google website (or wikipedia) it does... :)

[Philippe]

A Bing upgrade?

I am sure the two users out there are delighted.

[CreosoteChris]

Re: A Bing upgrade?

I am sure that lame joke stopped being witty, many iterations ago.

[Shagbag]

Microsoft has jazzed up Bing Maps with an extra 13 million square kilometers

...and it's still shite compared to Google Maps.

[Ian 55]

Is it just me

Or does the view on the left look better than the one on the right?

Yes, if you want to see something that's under a cloud, it's not very useful, but which would you rather have on your screen or wall?

[Cynical Observer]

Loving the time travel

As I zoom in, I can see the builders vans that filled the site in 2011. Another level of zoom and zap! they are gone, the extension is gone...

Out again. Oooo it's back.

Feels like I have my own personal cloaking system :-)

[Sporkinum]

I wasn't sure what 13,000,000 km2 was, so I asked Wolfram Alpha.

Comparisons as area:

~~ 0.76 × total area of Russia ( 1.70752×10^7 km^2 )

~~ 1.3 × total area of Canada ( 9.98467×10^6 km^2 )

~~ largest extent of the Roman Empire (~~ 9 Mm^2 )

[Huw D]

Instant fail

Go to Bing Blog link from article.

Scroll down to aerial photo of Wollaton Park, Nottingham, England.

Place cursor over photo.

Laugh at link.

[IsJustabloke]

Re: Instant fail

just like they think we all know every other "Britisher" :-)

[Lost In Clouds of Data]

I know I'm old fashioned, but...

...even with my 4G LTE enabled Galaxy S3 with Google Maps, MapQuest, Waze and other's all providing me cartography and GPS goodness, I still can't quite imagine a driving trip in Wales without my collection of Ordnance Survey Landranger 1:50 000 maps.

It's just not quite the same...

[bed]

Bing v google

Horses for courses. My wife (somewhat of a map geek) reckons maps.bing has some better features than maps.google. Where we live the bing map is more up-to-date; about 14.30 on 12 May 2012, compared to sometime in April 2003 (a nearby allotment had stuff being erected in staged at that time). With Nokia maps on my phone it will not surprise to hear I use bing for route mapping even when I think the google interface is a bit better. But other users will have other experiences and views which are respected.