This is one place where we did not expect the online mapping wars to end up: heading to the mall. In a, we think, bizarre move, Bing is taking the time to map out dozens of American malls, letting people look them over from a bird’s-eye view to help plan their next expedition.
We’re not making this up. Bing itself said this: “Bing Maps… will help you easily navigate shopping malls and retail stores.” Yep, if you really need to find that Zberry, just Bing and go. Right, so what does this look like? We went ahead and viewed a mall on Bing (who actually goes to malls?) and took this shot for you:
We event pointed out (the arrows are ours) the store that you are probably most likely to want to visit.
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Currently Bing has maps in place for 22 some malls, with plans to roll out more in the future, with an emphasis on size as a deciding factor for if a mall gets selected for mapping. What happens after the holiday season when half the shops change is a problem for Bing to deal with.
Ask yourself this: are mall maps going to make you jump from Google to Bing? We thought not.
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