This article was published on June 11, 2013

Bing Maps adds 270TB of Bird’s Eye imagery, the most to date, and expands Venue Maps to 4,700 in 59 countries


Bing Maps adds 270TB of Bird’s Eye imagery, the most to date, and expands Venue Maps to 4,700 in 59 countries

Microsoft today updated Bing Maps with its largest shipment of Bird’s Eye imagery yet, nearly 270 terabytes of data. The company also expanded the number of Venue Maps to more than 4,700 in 59 countries and added a new “Report a problem” feature.

So far, Microsoft has published a total of 1,452,958 sq km, or half a petabyte of data, in Bird’s Eye scenes from around the world. The Bing Maps coverage for this release is shown in yellow (it’s mainly for the US, some Europe, plus a little Canada and Australia):

BE_CoverageMap_7DF291BC

Venue Maps meanwhile let you navigate your way around malls, airports, amusement parks, casinos, shopping districts, convention centers, museums, stadiums, universities, hotels, and so on, using your Windows phone, tablet, and PC. It’s Microsoft’s answer to Google’s indoor floor plans.

Here’s an example:

VENUE_MofA_large_4B4EE8B0

Microsoft also explained that while using Bing Maps within a zoom level of 1,000 feet, purple (stores) and green (restaurants) polygons will appear to outline particular points of interest for a given venue. Clicking on any outlined polygon will give you a directory featuring a full list of options to visually explore additional floors of the venue.

Of course, none of this is really that interesting unless you actually try the features out for yourself. Here’s a quick list of examples that Microsoft provides:

As for the new “Report a problem” feature, all you have to do is click the link, select whether the location is not there anymore or has incorrect information, hit Continue, and select a final option or type in a comment. Unfortunately, Microsoft doesn’t say how quickly it will respond to reported issues, if at all.

See also – Microsoft’s Bing News adds trending topics and related individuals, expands articles index from weeks to years and Bing Desktop for Windows gets inline search, real-time weather, trending topics, Facebook notifications, and more

Top Image Credit: Leszek Nowak

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