Bing Maps Watch

Bing Maps Streetside - London UK

2011-08-22T11:44:00.000-07:00

Bing Maps Streetside - London UK

Streetside is now available for some parts of London, England

Westminister Bridge, London Bus and London Eye Iconic Landmarks, but do not expect 'Google Streetview' type functionality this is more a slide-show of images.

More information on Streetside
http://www.microsoft.com/maps/en-GB/streetside.aspx

View Streetside - London UK (click the icon next to Traffic)
http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=51.50085314131346~-0.12088798043215165&lvl=14&dir=0&sty=r&trfc=1&form=LMLTCC

Decode Jay-Z with Bing Maps

2011-07-13T07:35:00.000-07:00

Last year Bing ran a cool campaign around the release of a biography by rapper Jay-Z. The campaign involved placing objects around America related to Jay-Z's life.

Fans were then invited to take part in an on-line game to find the objects using Bing search and Bing Maps. The campaign has now finished but you can still see how the game unfolded at Decode Jay-Z.

A new user interface for Bing Maps

2011-07-12T07:21:00.000-07:00

A new user interface for Bing Maps

Text labels for most of the buttons, Controls accessible while still allowing the map to be the focus of the page.

These improvements are being rolled out to all of Bing's international sites with appropriate market-specific functionality. For example, Bing Maps users in the UK will still have access to the London Street Map and Ordnance Survey styles, along with our standard Road map, via the vector style drop-down. The public transport overlay, showing tube, DLR, and tram networks, is also readily available from the navigation bar when the map is centered over the greater London area.

Improved access to these imagery types by making them directly accessible from the top of the navigation bar. At the same time, you can now more easily switch between various road and imagery styles with a single click.

More information on the update:
http://www.bing.com/community/site_blogs/b/maps/archive/2011/07/11/a-new-user-interface-for-bing-maps.aspx

Bing Maps Streetside programme

2011-04-12T12:15:00.000-07:00

Bing Maps Streetside programme

London, UK started today.

http://www.microsoft.com/maps/en-GB/streetside-schedule.aspx

Existing Example

Drag the Blue 'person' Icon

http://www.bing.com/maps/explore/#5003/0.6044=&1.6002=q:Seattle:nelat:51.1889840455141:nelong:-113.685775756242:swlat:50.9110144284859:swlong:-114.434219359758:nosp:0:adj:0/5872/lat=47.598956&lon=-122.329401&alt=-8.35&z=30&h=-7.1&p=3.8&pid=5082

#ukfuel Bing Maps

2011-01-06T21:10:00.001-08:00

#ukfuel Bing Maps

Same concept as Ben Marsh's http://uksnowmap.com/ but with UK fuel prices and UK Post Codes and twitter mapped out on Bing Maps

The format of #ukfuel tweets is as follows:

[postcode] [fuel type] [price]

For example:

DA16 UL £1.30

http://www.scottlogic.co.uk/blog/colin/ukfuel-a-twitter-bing-maps-mashup-for-tracking-fuel-prices/

Street Slide

2010-12-16T04:37:00.000-08:00

In the video above Blaise Aguera y Arcas of Bing is demonstrating a new Photosynth application for iPhones. The application is expected to be released in the coming months.

It looks like Photosynths captured with the iPhone could be added to Bing Maps. In the second half of the video Blaise demonstrates Street Slide. Street Slide is a side on view of a road, which can be scrolled left and right. If you zoom in Street Slide seamlessly integrates with Street Side (Street View) views.

Street Slide is available in the lastest version of Bing for iPhone.

Via: Photosynth Blog

Bing Maps Adds Malls

2010-12-07T12:22:00.000-08:00

Bing Maps Adds Malls

The preview lists a set of malls in the Seattle, Boston, and NY metro areas, including:

1. Bellevue Square, WA
2. Crossroads, WA
3. Redmond Town Center, WA
4. Shops at the Bravern, WA
5. Meridian Town Center, WA
6. North Bend Premium Outlets, WA
7. Seattle Premium Outlets, WA
8. Cascade Mall, WA
9. Everett Mall, WA
10. Kitsap Mall, WA
11. University Village, WA
12. Marketplace at Factoria, WA
13. Bellevue Place, WA
14. Lincoln Square, WA
15. North Gate Mall, WA
16. Pacific Place Mall, WA
17. Tacoma Mall, WA
18. West Field Southcenter Mall, WA
19. Southhill Mall, WA
20. Queens Center Mall, NY
21. Roosevelt Field Mall, NY
22. Chestnut Hill Mall, MA

source:
http://www.bing.com/community/site_blogs/b/maps/archive/2010/12/07/bing-s-new-mall-maps-get-in-get-out-and-the-avoid-the-crowds.aspx

Route Savvy App - Bing Maps

2010-10-27T18:37:00.000-07:00

Whether you are going five or fifty places, the Route Planner app is a useful, unique map app that will get you from point A to Z in the shortest amount of time possible.

Find Shortest Routes or quickest routes with traffic and managing geocoding from Excel data.

How it Works

The first step is to add destinations on the map. “RouteSavvy” makes it easy to quickly add a few or 100 destinations – you can click locations on the map, enter addresses manually on the left-rail, or upload an Excel file with addresses on each row. For demonstration purposes, I’ve shown eight points below. Each time you add a destination, the map auto-zooms and centres so you can see all the destinations at once.

"General users likely have between three and ten destinations when they plan trips that could benefit from route optimization. The value of this tool for business use is amplified when businesses may have 25 or more destinations to reach in a day. Other servicesonly allow up to 25 waypoints – considering the Bing app can handle up to 100, we feel that we’ll be a strong choice for businesses who need great route optimization for lots of destinations. Realtor's who have multiple showings in a day, any business that does deliveries, shuttle services, technicians, and florists – just a few examples - will find this to be a great tool to make their lives easier with the “RouteSavvy” app."

View the new Map App: OnTerra’s “RouteSavvy” Route Optimizer

The Bing Maps Education App

2010-09-28T07:30:00.000-07:00

The ‘Bing Education’ map app shows local school information and donation, mentor, and volunteer opportunities in the area. The app integrates opportunities from Mentor Pro, Great Schools, and DonorsChoose.org. The app includes a feature to embed the map externally for your website.

The Bing Education Map App:
http://www.bing.com/maps/explore/#5003/0.60128=showitems:Institutions,Scholarship,StateEducationDepts,SchoolDistricts,CareerBuilder:embeddedmap_zoom:12:embeddedmap_latitude:40.7685307828233:embeddedmap_longitude:-73.9625170826912/5872/style=auto&lat=40.768531&lon=-73.962517&z=12&pid=5874

Piracy Watch

2010-09-14T03:44:00.000-07:00

Piracy Watch uses Bing Maps to help visualise piracy incidents around the globe from 1978 to present, displaying the data in both a map and timeline. The visualization also includes a heat map to give an immediate understanding of what parts of the world have been most impacted.

It is possible to click on any of the map markers to get further details of an incident. You can also click on the incidents displayed in the timeline to load the details and to see it highlighted on the map.

Piracy Watch

Battle of Britain - Bing Maps

2010-09-13T09:41:00.000-07:00

World War Two: Battle of Britain Maps

"MSN has teamed up with Shoothill to present an interactive overview of the Battle of Britain. Zoom into a mosaic of archive images and documents; compare present-day maps with maps and charts showing bomb damage during the Blitz; and view high-resolution Photosynths of iconic RAF aircraft."

Mapperz states:
"This is one of the 'Best Bing Interactive Maps' for 2010 (and 1940)"

The TimeMap is based on Bing Maps Silverlight Control. It shows original maps, reconnaissance imagery and target documents of the German Luftwaffe. You can navigate to various locations through quick links in a target list for London and Coventry.

The TimeScope can be dragged around to explore the location
The TimeSlider lets you switch between various historic maps and satellite imagery and the Documents.
DeepZoom - Compositions of the original target documents within the TimeScope.

Click for large view on the Map Controls, TimeSlider and TimeScope.

View the maps here:
http://news.uk.msn.com/in-depth/world-war-two/battle-of-britain/default.aspx

cross-posted from the Mapperz blog
http://mapperz.blogspot.com/2010/09/world-war-two-battle-of-britain-maps.html

Hurricane Tracker Bing Maps

2010-08-27T07:34:00.000-07:00

Hurricane Tracker Bing Maps

See current locations, forecast paths and detailed stats for any active hurricane this season (2010)

Hurricane Danielle 2010 - Currently Category 4

Profile view of wind speed & forecast wind
Animated symbols
Lighten darken map
Possible forecast error shown

View the Hurricane Bing Map
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26295161/

Bing Maps in Hotmail

2010-08-24T10:07:00.000-07:00

Bing Maps in Hotmail

Get Bing Maps for your locations in hotmail.

Hotmail users can embedd Bing Maps into emails for showing locations and linking to directions in the main Bing Maps Website.

When users create a new email message the option 'From Bing' is displayed and contains

Images
Clip Art
Videos
Maps & Places
Webpages

Using the Maps & Places creates a side bar (see image above)
You can add new locations (and save them for later)
Then just use the insert to add the embedded map to your email.
Internet connection is required for displaying the map.

source
http://johanneskebeck.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!42E1F70205EC8A96!12589.entry

Facebook Places using Bing Maps

2010-08-19T08:18:00.000-07:00

Facebook has launched 'Facebook Places' accessible and the new Facebook iPhone application touch.facebook.com site on your moblie device. Select the Places button, find the location where you are and check-in. Just like that, the check-in will flow to your profile on Facebook.com complete with a Bing Map, a pin of your location and any commentary you’ve added to your check-in.

Places also includes the ability to see where your friends have checked in, a link to get directions to a place (via Bing Maps) and a Like button for the respective place page. The place information bubbles up to the actual Places page which has a larger map experience, plus an update for you to see all of your friends who’ve visited that location. This means you can see where your friends are checking and discover new places.

With 500 million users overnight have the ability to check-in to locations providing a wealth of information to you and your friends about businesses, common places to visit and who of your friends is going to the most random locations.

Source and Image: http://www.bing.com/community/blogs/maps/archive/2010/08/18/facebook-places-launches-with-bing-d-out-maps.aspx

Bing Maps Features Demo

2010-08-17T08:08:00.000-07:00

Bing Maps Features Demo

A short video (3m.45s) long that shows the new features in Bing Maps in fluid and responsive manner.

Greg's Cable Map

2010-08-14T03:35:00.000-07:00

Greg's Cable Map is an attempt to consolidate all the available information about the World's undersea communications infrastructure on a Bing Map. The initial data for the map was harvested from Wikipedia, and further information was gathered by simply Googling and transcribing as much data as possible.

If you mouse-over any of the displayed cables on the map a brief description is displayed at the bottom of the map. If you click on the cable more details are displayed in the map sidebar and links are given to relevant websites.

Greg's Cable Map

Bing Maps - CachEye

2010-08-12T20:22:00.000-07:00

Bing Maps - CachEye

CACH'EYE is a free personalised geocaching map service based on a Bing Maps application. Each user can define the content of his personal cachemap. Cache data are imported from Pocket Queries, from GPX- / LOC-Files or are exported from Geocaching Swiss Army Knife (GSAK) and visualised in an easy-to-use interactive map.

Clear, creative mapping for geocaches around the world.

Version 1.1 has many new features

Caches and additional waypoints now can be imported into the map directly from your Pocket Queries using the PQ-ZIP-File or still by using a GSAK-macro (as in V1.0), Up to 3000 caches plus waypoints may be displayed.
A single cache may be imported and visualized on the map via a GPX- or LOC-File.
Caches and additional waypoints now are associated to each other. With Focus/cache the map highlights and zooms to all waypoints of a specific cache.
ToDo-Lists assist you in quick and easy route planning. Todo-lists are named and you can maintain several lists.
Now you may move solved "Mysteries", "Multicaches" and "Other Caches" to corrected coordinates on the map in case you did not import this cache from GSAK.
Openstreetmap also can be used as the basemap.
Measure distance tool
Altitude display (approx.) in Cache/Waypoint/Marker Popup
Metrics (km/miles) may be changed in account settings / information.
Displays waymarks on the map for GSAK-based datasets
Invoke the "Log Your Visit" page directly from within the map
Better appearance on 800x600 screen resolution

Map Demo:
http://demo.cacheye.org/

More information on CachEye
http://www.cacheye.org/panel/front

Bing Maps Explore with Open Street Map (Silverlight)

2010-08-04T15:10:00.000-07:00

Open Street Map now in Bing Maps

(cross posted with kind permission from Mapperz)

Open Street Map is now available in Bing Maps via the 'Open Street Map' App

MapNik Tile Render via Bing Maps (OSM) APP

http://tinyurl.com/Bing-Maps-Open-Street-Map

Original source:

http://mapperz.blogspot.com/2010/08/open-street-map-now-in-bing-maps.html

Bing Maps Revamped

2010-08-03T10:58:00.000-07:00

Bing Maps Revamped

The new Bing Map look, clearer (less clutter) make it easier to read and locate regions.

Cool colours visually recede allowing warmer overlays to come forward - An elegant backdrop for information delivery and helps content ‘pop out’ on the map
Road colour provides greatest differentiation scientifically from red, yellow, green traffic overlays.
De-saturation on zoom allows more continuous transition to photographic material (Aerial, Birdseye, Streetside) and allows user to focus on street level detail better.
Designed to work in black and white and to be differentiated by those with the most common forms of colour blindness
Crisp/easy to read font, larger font corresponds to larger roads
Lower cognitive load – Less data / clearer details (loads faster)
Improved international coverage: Data updates deliver improved road and street detail across Central & Eastern Europe, Middle East, Oceania and Asia.

More information and source (including image)

http://www.bing.com/community/blogs/maps/archive/2010/08/03/bing-s-bringing-sexy-maps.aspx

TimeMap Berlin

2010-07-27T03:42:00.000-07:00

This Bing Map lets you view historical maps of Berlin. The map features an innovative 'timescope' that you can drag over the modern map of Berlin whilst viewing the historical map through the timescope.

If you wish to view a different historical map of Berlin you can select a date from the bottom of the timescope. It is also possible to adjust the transparency of the historical map to view the modern map beneath. On the right hand side of the map are quick links to some of Berlin's top sights.

TimeMap Berlin

Facebook Stories using Bing Maps

2010-07-21T12:09:00.000-07:00

Facebook Stories using Bing Maps

Find Facebook Stories by location using Bing Maps

Facebook is all about your individual and collective experiences of you and your friends. It's filled with hundreds of millions of stories. Which ones inspire you? What's your Facebook story?

Facebook has launched a new application highlighting shared stories about people who have leveraged Facebook to reconnect.
The app "Facebook Stories" uses stories that have been authored by users who’ve found family, friends and flames on Facebook after having been long disconnected and used the social network to find one another amongst the 500 million Facebook users.

Of the stories that have been published, Facebook is providing you with location context via Bing Maps. For those users that are reading the stories a map provides that visual representation to stories location.

The application lets you scroll through stories on Bing Maps (by location), as well as by dozens of themes “Love,” “Family,” Reunions,” “Sports” and “College” etc.. Fill out the short form at the bottom and select a theme, and you’ll be able to share your story in the application and with your friends through News Feed.

Facebook wants your stories. Story submissions are limited to 420 characters, so think about what makes your story unique and about the impact you or a group of people made by using Facebook. Read the full blog post on the Facebook blog for more details.

Facebook Stories App and Bing Map -
http://stories.facebook.com/

Links
http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=409743057130
http://www.bing.com/community/blogs/maps/archive/2010/07/21/facebook-maps-out-user-stories.aspx

Bing Maps - Data Connector - SQL Server

2010-07-15T13:28:00.000-07:00

Bing Maps - Data Connector is an Open Source + Open Data project focused on connecting the power of Bing Maps Silverlight Control to the spatial query capabilities of SQL Server 2008.

Bing Maps Data Connector SQL Spatial
The Live Example - Finding Earthquakes using a user defined Buffer.
Solid Red line is Line to be buffered, green is the buffer, cyan is individual earthquake and associated attribution (date, size, duration).

The three basic parts of this project are the DataBase (SampleGeographyData), the WCF Services (DataConnectorWCF), and the Silverlight Client (DataConnectorUI2). The DataConnectorWCF and DataConnectorUI were developed using Visual Studio 2008 and the data base requires SQL Server 2008.

Bing Maps - Data Connector - SQL Server 2008 Query
These datasets imported to SQL 2008 were chosen to provide useful common data resources as well as examples of each type of spatial feature: points, lines, and polygons.

Additional data resources are easily added to SQL Server. The import utility used for this project was FME Translator from Safe Software.
http://www.safe.com

The data was imported as spatial type geometry and then corrected as required to make valid before updating to an additional geography spatial column. EPSG:4326 is the SRID used for all tables and constraints were added to enforce this srid. The end result is two spatial columns, “the geo” as geography, and “the geom” as geometry. Once imported the data was modified to include an “ID” column suitable for use as a primary key necessary for spatial indexing. For the sake of uniformity each table was also modified as necessary to provide a ‘NAME’ column. For the thematic polygon example an ‘AREA’ column was added to each of the polygon tables. Finally, spatial indices were added to the geography and the geometry columns.

There are lots of examples and blogs that explore Silverlight Mapping as well as resources for SQL Server Spatial. However, the WCF middle tier is not as well represented, which is the reason for publishing this project. The DataConnectorUI2 example Silverlight UI is a Navigation Project with examples of connecting to each of the sample WCF Services.

1. WKT example uses 'Well Known Text' to transmit SQL query results to the client.
2. XAML example transforms SQL query results into XAML, and then transmits as a XAML MapLayer.
3. Tile example builds raster png images in 256px x 256px tiles from the SQL query results. Tile Service feeds these to the client as MapTileLayer.TileSources endpoints. Tile has examples of both cached tiles and dynamic tiles. The thematic option will build dynamic tiles, otherwise tiles are cached in SQL Server as acquired.
4. Hybrid example combines tiles and XAML. Lower zoom levels use tile service for better performance with large data sets while higher zoom levels switch to XAML service to take advantage of vector interactivity.

Live Example : http://silverlight.onterrasys.com/dataconnectorUI/#/WKT

Ordnance Survey Map in Bing Maps - Silverlight

2010-07-08T13:31:00.000-07:00

Ordnance Survey Map in Bing Maps 1:25k and 1:50k Mapping Scales

Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 (Landranger series) scale mapping in Bing Maps

Ordnance Survey 1:25.000 (Explorer series) scale mapping in Bing Maps

http://uslot.com/NewBingTestPage.html

2010 Tour De France on Bing Maps

2010-07-04T15:04:00.000-07:00

2010 Tour De France on Bing Maps

Bing Maps includes elevation gain, slope (-/+%) with an interactive profile chart linked to the map route of each stage.

The 2010 Tour De France Bing Maps app:

This app is designed to help you visualise the overall race, the stages (stages tab + numbers) and how variables such as weather & elevation (elevation profiles) will impact each stage. Results will be updated along the way in the 'Results' tab.

Check the content in the 'Stages' and 'Results' tabs as you keep track of the greatest cycling race in the world.

http://www.bing.com/maps/explore/#5003/0.60041=/5872/style=be&lat=r4hhm9&lon=h0bqb4&alt=1983.162592&z=13&h=180&pid=5874

Seattle.gov 'My Neighborhood' - Bing Maps

2010-07-01T00:05:00.000-07:00

Seattle.gov 'My Neighborhood' - Bing Maps

Seattle.gov have launched this 'My Neighborhood' include Crime reports Map.
The crime icons are based on initial police reports taken by officers when responding to incidents around the city. The information enters Seattle Police Records Management System and is then transmitted out to the Bing map.

Note: This data and their corresponding map icons will populated on the 'My Neighborhood' map within 6 to 12 hours after the report is filed into the system.

Use the left-hand side bar in choosing date (by calendar), types of crime (Crimes Against Persons, Drugs and Vice, Property Crime/Theft, Transportation & Miscellaneous sub- catergories). Advice is not to switch everything on at once.

About the data:
The mapped icons are based on police reports taken by officers when responding to incidents around the city. The time for an incident to show on the map is 12 hours after the report has been processed. However, the time for a report related to the event to be made available online can take 2-3 business days.

Important Note:
This map provides a good overview of reported activity going on in the Seattle neighborhood. The icons for these incidents are based on initial reports, however, and are subject to change as the investigation proceeds. For this reason, the mapped incidents will not match monthly crime statistics and will not provide a true measure of safety or crime in an area.

View the Seattle Police "My Neighborhood" Bing Map
http://web5.s eattle .gov/mnm/p olicereports.aspx

On the same Bing Map it is possible to view live Fire or Medical impacts

Using the 'Impacts' tab on the map will change from crime to Fire Incidents (with covers medicial) assistance - this map is updated every 2 minutes.

View the Fire/Medicial Map
http://web5.seattle.gov/mnm/default.aspx?tabId=2

Azure SQL 2008 - Bing Maps - Near Route Demo

2010-06-29T10:15:00.001-07:00

Azure SQL 2008 - Bing Maps - Near Route Demo

After the announcement http://bingmapswatch.blogspot.com/2010/03/bing-maps-sql-azure-support-april-2010.html that Azure SQL 2008 was implmenting Spatial Support (Geography and Geometry) this now enabled.

This is an example of combining, Windows Azuew, SQL Azure, Silverlight and Bing Maps to produce a find along a route example

Finding Petrol (Gas) Stations along a route (Boston to Chicago) within 1km (1000m) of the route.

The code inside Azure SQL 2008 doing this is

@myGEOM is the lat and lng (x1,y2)+(x2,y2) start and end points for the route
@myBuffer is the buffer distance (1000m default)
@myRoute is the (xy,xy,xy,xy) of the enitre route creating a polyline
This polyline is then buffered creating a polygon (area) around the route.
SQL 2008 Azure then uses Geoproccessing 'Buffer' and 'Intersect' to pull-out
any points (gas stations in this example) and then displays the points as markers
on bing maps

code:

 CREATE PROCEDURE [FindNearRoute] @myGEOM nvarchar(MAX), @myBuffer int
AS
   --Create the Buffer
   DECLARE @myRoute geography;
   SET @myRoute = @myGEOM;

   DECLARE @SearchArea geography;
   SET @SearchArea = @myRoute.STBuffer(@myBuffer);

   --Return all POI in the search area
   SELECT Lat, Lon, Name
   FROM PetrolStations
   WHERE (@SearchArea.STIntersects(GEOM)) = 1

Live Example (Silverlight required)
http://talkingdonkey.cloudapp.net/BM-SL-FindNearRoute/Default.htm

There is also a zip file (BM-FindNearRoute.zip) with all the source code required to create your own find near a route example.

Source
http://johanneskebeck.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!42E1F70205EC8A96!12533.entry

Draggable Routes Demo - Bing Maps API - Windows Azure

2010-06-24T07:05:00.000-07:00

Bing Maps API - Draggable Routes Demo

Routes can now be made draggable

"Many people like the drag-able routes in the consumer facing implementation of Bing Maps. This feature basically allows you to mouse over a route-path and drag a point to a location that you want to drive past. "

Dragged Route - Auto re-calculation of the route.

Multi-waypoint routing in Bing Maps. You can have up to 25 waypoints, 27 including start point, an endpoint and up to 25 points in between within a single route-calculation. When the route is dragged the API re-calculates the route and basically adds an additional waypoint into the route.

Draggable Routes Bing Maps Demo
http://talkingdonkey.cloudapp.net/BM-AJ-Drag-able-Route/Default.htm

Source with Code with thanks to Johannes Kebeck
http://johanneskebeck.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!42E1F70205EC8A96!12519.entry

BusTrack Windows Phone 7 App - Bing Maps

2010-06-20T00:01:00.000-07:00

BusTrack Windows Phone 7 App - Bing Maps

Below is a preview of the Windows Phone 7 app used for real-time tracking of Chicago buses.

"This app will make sure you never miss a bus, and perhaps more importantly, will make sure you know the best time to leave your house or office so you don’t end up standing and waiting at the bus stop for a ridiculous amount of time."

Windows Phone 7 app used for real-time tracking of Chicago buse

It takes full advantage of the Bing Maps Silverlight control to plot out exact GPS locations of buses and stops, making sure you always know the optimal time to leave.

BusTrack can even group your most frequent stops together by a “location” so you don’t have to bounce in and out of different routes that you might want take to your destination.

More information:
http://matthidinger.com/archive/2010/06/18/bustrack-windows-phone-7-app.aspx

Bing Maps South Africa World Cup 2010 App

2010-06-11T11:52:00.000-07:00

Bing Maps South Africa World Cup 2010 App

World Cup – The New World Cup map app highlights all the different countries participating in the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Countries are pinned to the map with their respective flags as pushpin icons. Clicking a flag pin will tell you when their next game is and against who they play with links to the FIFA web site for the respective match. Additionally, Bing in Partnership with Twitter & FIFA are pushing down tons of information such as teams, stats and standings right in Bing Maps. Now millions of World Cup fans can easily follow the month-long soccer [Football] finals with the Bing Maps World Cup app. In addition to group standings, the app will link by country to team stats including results and fixtures. The latest World Cup news will be supplied via an RSS feed from FIFA. Also, Stadiums will be pinned on the map; selecting a stadium will automatically zoom in on the map to the level that will display an aerial image of the stadium. Tweets that include World Cup terms [#WorldCup] will be shown. And for users who want to feel like they are there, they can check out World Cup specific 3D scenes from Photosynth. And Aerial photos have been just updated in time for World Cup. So, if you zoom to the areas in and around the stadiums you’ll see some high resolution aerial photos with the new stadiums in clear view.

Direct link to the South Africa World Cup 2010 Bing Map App
http://www.bing.com/maps/explore/?preview=1#5003/0.50380=AccordionViewState:Standings

/5872/style=a&lat=0&lon=0&z=2&pid=5874

Create a Treasure Map with Bing

2010-06-09T01:40:00.000-07:00

Styling Destination Maps

Bing's Destination Map is a fun application that lets you create a static map for any location in the world and give it a number of predefined styles. The styles include a hand-drawn look and a pirate style.

To create a map just choose a location and the style you want for your map. Bing will then create your map for you.

Once created you can print out the map or save it to the web.

The King of Bing Maps Challenge

2010-06-07T09:00:00.000-07:00

Bing have released the Bing Map App Software Development Kit (SDK). This release gives developers the ability to create their own map apps built on top of Bing Maps and hosted on bing.com/maps.

Once developers have created a Bing Map app, they are encouraged to submit it to the King of Bing Maps Challenge. The challenge starts today and concludes on July 25, 2010.

Bing have also released a new mapping app Weatherbug

WeatherBug

With WeatherBug you can check weather around the world or select an observation station to see the current conditions. Observation stations are pinned to the map and you can layer Doppler and satellite weather imagery over the map view.

Observation stations include National Weather Service locations, WeatherBug Backyard stations, and WeatherBug stations, which may include current and next day forecasts, camera images and links to radar imagery.

Free Ice Cream with Bing Maps

2010-06-07T04:40:00.000-07:00

Bing Ice Cream Van Tour

Bing in the UK have just launched an ice cream van tour. This Bing Map of the tour promises a free delicious ice lolly courtesy of Bing and tells you where and when you can collect your freebie.

The tour seems to run for all of June and the ice cream van seems to be touring mostly in London but there are a few planned stops between London and Reading. If you want to find out where the ice cream van is stopping then you need to check out this Bing Map of the tour.

Bing Health Maps

2010-06-02T10:11:00.000-07:00

New Bing Map App: Bing Health Maps, Florida.

Data from the Department of Health and Human Services is used in this new Bing Map App dubbed Bing Health Maps. The new Map App provides statistical information for the entire United States by county to visualize healthy & not-so-healthy parts of the country to help you make healthier decisions.

"After viewing this app, you’ll want to stay healthy…"

"Using the Bing Health Map App allows for a great, quick views of the different counties around the U.S. How useful would this be in only tabular form?"
Chris Pendleton - Bing Maps Technical Evangelist

Bing Health Maps - http://tinyurl.com/Bing-Health-Maps

More Information:
http://www.bing.com/community/blogs/maps/archive/2010/06/02/new-bing-map-app-bing-health-maps.aspx

Microsoft Fuselabs - Bing Twitter Map

2010-05-31T14:35:00.000-07:00

Bing Twitter Maps shows "geotagged" public Tweets from the last seven days. Many Twitter applications now allow Twitter users to add location to a Tweet, a functionality that Twitter introduced back in November 2009.

Why isn't my Tweet showing up?

First, you need to "enable geotagging" on your profile page at http://twitter.com/ Second, you need make sure you use a Twitter application that supports adding location to Tweets. If you want to find a client that does support geolocation, look at Twitter applications used to generate Tweets the list on the left panel.

A few ideas: first, please read the above about adding location to your Tweets. We are not placing Tweets based on Twitter profile, but based on per Tweet geolocation.

What about privacy?We are only showing public Tweets (which is the default setting when you sign up at Twitter). Please remember that when you create a public Tweet anyone may be able see your Tweet content and location. Tweet with care.

How can I find specific Tweets?

You can search by location, username, keyword term using the "Search Filters" in the left hand pane.

Microsoft Fuselabs - Bing Twitter Map Project:

http://fuse.microsoft.com/projects-bing-twitter-maps.html

Taxi City - the Bing Maps Game

2010-05-23T07:10:00.000-07:00

Taxi City

This is a pretty decent taxi driver simulation game built on top of Bing Maps. The aim of the game is to pick up and drop off passengers in and around Vancouver, Canada.

The game itself is very impressive but what is even more wonderful is that the developers have made the source files for the game freely available. So if you want to build something similar yourself just download the files and get to work.

If that sounds too much like hard work then just play the game!

More Bing Maps Apps

2010-05-21T08:46:00.000-07:00

More Bing Maps Apps

Three more Bing Maps Explore Apps

Gas Prices (US only)
Distance Calculator (Worldwide)
Parking Finder (US only)

Find the gas prices near you or where you intend to go before you set off.

Find either the straight line distance or the driving/road distance to your chosen locations.

And the latest app is parking with useful calculator or rates over the period of time you require.
Like the update this app on the parking icons with the costs

Full Coverage:
http://www.bing.com/community/blogs/maps/archive/2010/05/19/new-bing-map-apps-gas-prices-distance-calculator-and-parking-finder.aspx

Bing Maps gets Navigation for Windows Phones

2010-05-14T09:44:00.000-07:00

Bing Navigation Map app for Windows phones.

Redesigned even the home page. Navigation refreshed to give people faster access to common searches such as Locations, Traffic.

Turn-by-turn navigation for Windows 6.x phones, powered by Bing Maps. Microsoft Tellme team’s built hte voice applications to deliver an amazingly lifelike voice experience for the turn-by-turn navigation. If you have a Windows phones on Sprint, T-Mobile, or AT&T you can use the voice guided navigation. USA Only.

Now when getting directions with Bing, you’ll see a new “Navigate” button. By selecting it, Bing will calculate your route, and guide you as you drive. You can select the fastest or shortest route, choose to avoid traffic and/or tolls, get a map or a list of directions, and see arrows and hear alerts to know which way to turn next.

The navigation feature is compatible with the phones below. If you have one of these and are in the U.S., check your phone for the update or go to m.bing.com

National Geographic Global Action Atlas using Bing Maps

2010-05-11T00:46:00.000-07:00

"The Global Action Atlas spotlights hundreds of local, cause-related projects from around the world to a large audience of concerned citizens, giving individuals opportunities to take action by donating, volunteering, advocating, and sharing information. The Atlas enhances and extends the mission of the National Geographic Society"

Create a Floor Plan with Bing Maps

2010-04-26T05:18:00.000-07:00

Adding Photosynth and Floor Plans to Bing Maps

Hannes' Virtual Earth Blog has a good tutorial explaining how you can create a Bing Maps mashup with Photosynth and floorplans of buildings.

The tutorial explains how you can create your own map tiles from a floorplan and integrate your floorplan with Bing Maps. To add a little fun interactivity the tutorial also explains how you can embed Photosynth images into your floorplan map.

Demo one - Microsoft Campus
Demo two - Art Gallery of New South Wales

Bing Maps Webcasts - April 2010

2010-04-22T07:48:00.000-07:00

2 Bing Maps Webcasts

Light Up the Web with Bing Maps

"Create a leading edge web experience that lets visitors dive in and explore for themselves. See how you can light up your web site with Bing Maps. Explore the integrated imagery and seamless navigation of the Silverlight Map Control, the up-close and personal views from Streetside™, the customizable experience. See how customers are using Bing Maps today to engage customers on the Web"

http://www.microsoft.com/maps/webcasts/light-up-the-web-with-bing-maps.aspx 47mins

Bing Maps in Your Business Intelligence Dashboard

"Help empower decision makers across your organisation with rich views of the data they need. Join us to see how Bing Maps can provide a spatial context to your business data. Learn how to build solutions with Bing Maps—and other Microsoft products such as SQL Server, Azure and SharePoint—to display your business intelligence data in a way that is meaningful and understandable. And help drive smarter decisions. "
http://www.microsoft.com/maps/webcasts/bing-maps-in-your-business-intelligence-dashboard.aspx
51mins

The World's Newspapers Mapped

2010-04-21T04:08:00.000-07:00

Newseum
Newseum is using Bing Maps to provide an interface to view the front pages of daily newspapers from around the world.

This is a great application to find newspapers in any location around the world, with the added bonus that you can actually view today's front page from each of the newspapers.

GeoSynth - using Bing Maps

2010-04-20T05:29:00.000-07:00

GeoSynth™, a derivative product of Microsoft® Photosynth™ enables fully automated reconstruction of 3D scenes from digital photos or video and an intuitive means to visualize the images within a 3D geospatial context known as a Synth. GeoSynth is intended for users who need an analytical capability without internet connectivity.

Take your own Digita Camera Pictures and transform them into 3D Streetside Scenes

•Capture an environment quickly at varying resolutions with most any digital HD video camera
•Reconstruct 3D geospatial environments fully automatically
•Combine views from a wide time span (4D)
•Standalone capability for offline usage w/o Internet connectivity
•KML map products and point clouds exported for OGC tool access
•Launch Bing Maps 3D viewer readily from any photo perspective

GeoSynth, a standalone application, is comprised of a Viewer and “GeoSynther” which provides
the same incredible capabilities as Photosynth to users who require offline storage and distribution of Synths.

Geotagging Digital Photographs for GeoSynth, postioned in 3D (heading,pitch,roll) locations

Those unfamiliar with Photosynth can visit Photosynth.com, Microsoft’s revolutionary web platform that enables Windows Live users to freely synthesize and view 2d and 3d environments from photo collections.

GeoSynth customers can take a customized version with this same technology offline for standalone usage in the field or on secure intranets.

http://www.vexcel.com/geospatial/geosynth/features.asp

Coachella Live Twitter Bing Map

2010-04-19T04:01:00.000-07:00

Coachella 2010

Music blog Pitchfork has used the Bing Maps Twitter app to provide a real-time map of comments from Coachella 2010, the indie music festival.

To create your own Twitter Map go to the Twitter Maps application in the Bing Maps Application Gallery.

You can create a Twitter map for any location and you can even filter Tweets. For example, Pitchfork filtered their map to just show Tweets mentioning 'Coachella'.

Via: Mattsly.com

Volcanic Ash Cloud on Bing Maps

2010-04-18T04:47:00.000-07:00

Volcanic Ashes Map

Johannes Kebeck has created a Bing Map to display two satellite images of the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud. Johannes has taken two images from NASA’s MODIS Rapid Response System and created a Bing Maps Silverlight application.

The map lets you view the two satellite images of the volcanic ash cloud, taken on the 15th April, using Bing Maps navigational controls.

Explore Doctor Who in Wales Bing Map

2010-04-17T05:34:00.000-07:00

Explore Doctor Who in Wales using Bing Maps

The Doctor Who in Wales guide. An interactive map to explore some of the key locations that featured in the Doctor Who programmes, from the 1960s to the present day.

See information on Welsh places via Bing Maps and how they were used in the episodes, quotations from the cast and crew, and behind-the-scenes videos and photos to show how the team transformed parts of Wales for the show.

Click on a TARDIS icon to watch find out more information about a place, watch a video clip or view a photo.

Zoom in and out to get a closer view of the map and location. If you get lost, press the Reset Map button to start your journey again.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/arts/map/doctor-who-wales/

Bing Maps Apps Innovations

2010-04-13T02:53:00.000-07:00

A walkthrough of Bing Maps' innovative application technologies including the WorldWide Telescope, Streetside Photos, Local Lens, Twitter Maps and Destination Maps.

Bing Newsroom: Video Gallery
http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/presskits/bing/videoGallery.aspx?contentID=BingMapswwtelescope

Bing Maps Live Boat Tracking

2010-04-10T11:27:00.000-07:00

Pelican Racing - Live Tracking

Pelican Racing have a truly impressive Bing Maps application that allows you to view live tracks of sailing fleets off the coast of the UK. Using the map it is possible to view any of the boats' course and speed, view current weather conditions, and watch the crew perform.

At the bottom of the map you can see which boats are currently being tracked. If none of the boats are in the water you can instead playback their last outing. If you select to playback a previous cruise you can view the track of the boat and view a synchronised video of the boat in action.

The video is synchronised with the boat's track on the map and a graph allows you to view the boat's speed at every point on its journey, along with the date and time.

UK Bing Maps User Group

2010-04-09T05:12:00.000-07:00

Bing Maps UK Based User Group - A place to talk about Bing Maps

http://bingmapsuk.ning.com/

Tom Clancy Splinter Cell Game

2010-04-06T17:40:00.000-07:00

Bing Maps Splinter Cell Quest

Coca-Cola Zero have released a Bing Maps game based on Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell. The object of the game is to find characters on the map, who will give you clues as to how you will solve the quest.

Unfortunately (for me) the game is in French. So I can't really tell you much more than that. I'm afraid my language skills severely let me down in this game. It looks fun though.

April 2010: Bing Maps Webcasts

2010-04-06T05:22:00.000-07:00

Up and coming: Bing Maps Webcasts
[20th, 21st & 22nd April 2010 all at 9:00am PST]

Bing Maps Technical Evangelist, Chris Pendleton is in a series of three webcasts as you explore the ways you can use Bing Maps

Whether it’s Web sites to inform and engage your users, to business intelligence dashboards which enable smarter decisions, or asset tracking tools that manage fleets and other mobile assets -Bing Maps webcasts will help you understand the power to geo-visualisation.

More details and register
http://www.microsoft.com/maps/webcasts/

Bing Maps on the BBC

2010-04-05T04:06:00.000-07:00

BBC - Save Our Sounds Map

Here's an oldie from the BBC. Last year the BBC created this Bing Map to help preserve endangered sounds for future generations. The map lets anyone submit a recorded sound to the map and users of the map can play the submitted sounds directly from the map.

There is a lot of fun to be had from this map just from listening to the interesting soundscapes around the world.

The BBC is a great user of Bing Maps. If you want to see some of the other Bing Maps created by the BBC the Bing Maps Blog has compiled a list of some of their favourites from the venerable broadcaster.

New Bing Map Apps

2010-03-31T11:18:00.000-07:00

Bing Map has today announced the release of a number of new Bing Maps Apps.

Probably the most anticipated is the foursquare app that allows you to view foursquare check-ins, tips, badges and mayor coronations directly on Bing Maps. Unfortunately today's release is limited to 'a certain set of users' so you might not be able to access it yet.

Next up is the Oodle Rentals app that lets you view rental properties on Bing Maps. Each listing will be shown on the map and listed in the side panel with a photo, price, type of rental, the address and the number of bedrooms and bathrooms.

The third of today's new releases is the Bing Maps World Tour app. This app highlights all the imagery updates made to Bing Maps. Currently the app gives you a release by release breakdown of all the imagery updates dating back to August 2009.

Integrating BING Maps with SharePoint 2010

2010-03-31T00:03:00.000-07:00

In this video, Bing Maps integrated and running inside of SharePoint 2010.
Note that you can also make this work in SharePoint 2007.
Telerik Silverlight Controls to make all this happen.
2% of the video is slides, all of the rest is all hands-on code.
The entire application, is written right in front of your eyes, in about 1 hour.

future details:
http://blah.winsmarts.com/2010-3-Integrating_Silverlight_BING_Maps_with_SharePoint_2010.aspx

Bing Maps & Google Maps

2010-03-29T04:44:00.000-07:00

Dual Maps

Dual Maps is a map creation tool that allows anybody to make an embeddable map that includes a Google Map, a Google Maps Street View and a Virtual Earth Bird's Eye view of the same location.

The maps all work together, so if you change your position in the map the Bird's Eye View and the Street View update to reflect your changed position.

Bird's Eye View

This map places Bing Maps' Bird's Eye View side by side with Google Maps' new Aerial View. The application allows you to compare the Bird's Eye View imagery used in Bing and in Google Maps.

Bing Maps & SQL Azure Support April 2010

2010-03-27T03:19:00.000-07:00

Bing Maps & SQL Azure Support April 2010

Dave Robinson above of the SQL Azure Team announced upcoming support for spatial data in SQL Azure. Example shown are gas stations along a route.

The SQL Azure Team announced upcoming support for spatial data in SQL Azure. You can view the announcement at the MIX Conference in the video of Dave’s presentation, Building Web Applications with Microsoft SQL Azure.

Behind the scenes; spatial buffer of a polyline .Windows SQL Azure will have spatial capabilities release 12th April 2010.

"SQL Azure provides a highly available and scalable relational database engine in the cloud. In this demo-intensive and interactive session, learn how to quickly build web applications with SQL Azure Databases and familiar web technologies. We demonstrate how you can quickly provision, build and populate a new SQL Azure database directly from your web browser. Also, see firsthand several new enhancements we are adding to SQL Azure based on the feedback we’ve received from the community since launching the service earlier this year."

This uses Microsoft SQL 2008 Server technology as based on latitude and longitude geometry support.

More information: http://blogs.msdn.com/sqlazure/archive/2010/03/19/9981936.aspx

Get Your Own Bing Twitter Map

2010-03-22T07:31:00.001-07:00

This is really cool. Bing Maps now has an option to create and embed a Twitter map in your own website.

To create your own Twitter Map go to the Twitter Maps application in the Bing Maps Application Gallery.

You can create a Twitter map for any location. More impressively you can even filter Tweets. For example, you can filter the map to just show Tweets mentioning 'health care'. You can also define the size of the map that you want to embed in your site.

Bing iPhone App Version 1.1

2010-03-22T02:42:00.001-07:00

Bing iPhone App Version 1.1

Search maps or the web with your voice even say an address.

Bookmark maps locations & directions.

Use 'Nearby' image search and flick through previews.

Local weather reports

New functionality:

One-touch zoom out
Designed for one-handed operation
Voice recognition

As well as aesthetic changes and tweaks to the stability of the app, more features to the app include the ability to copy and paste URLs, sharing search results via email and also offering parental controls which can be amended using the app’s search settings. In addition to this the new Bing app also allows users to edit their search history.

Other updates to the Bing iPhone app include being able to bookmark maps, directions, websites, businesses, search terms and local weather reports direct from the Bing homepage.

iTunes download http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bing/id345323231?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D2

Bing Maps Flying You To The Stars

2010-03-21T16:26:00.000-07:00

Microsoft has added a WorldWide Telescope application to Bing Maps. The new application allows users of Bing Maps to view real time information about the night sky.

The application allows users to seamlessly switch from Streetside View to a view of the night sky just by panning the Streetside View to look at the sky.

When you click the “Start Here” button you can drag the telescope mouse pointer to any location on the map. You will then be shown a view of the night sky and the stars overhead as it looks right now (if dark).

The WorldWide Telescope application also allows you to query any point of the night sky to identify what is there. To query the map click on the question make and then drag the circle icon to any location on the map.

Bing Maps Watch

Bing Maps Streetside - London UK

Decode Jay-Z with Bing Maps

A new user interface for Bing Maps

Bing Maps Streetside programme

#ukfuel Bing Maps

Street Slide

Bing Maps Adds Malls

Route Savvy App - Bing Maps

View the new Map App: OnTerra’s “RouteSavvy” Route Optimizer

The Bing Maps Education App

Piracy Watch

Battle of Britain - Bing Maps

Hurricane Tracker Bing Maps

Bing Maps in Hotmail

Facebook Places using Bing Maps

Bing Maps Features Demo

Greg's Cable Map

Bing Maps - CachEye

Bing Maps Explore with Open Street Map (Silverlight)

Bing Maps Revamped

TimeMap Berlin

Facebook Stories using Bing Maps

Bing Maps - Data Connector - SQL Server

Ordnance Survey Map in Bing Maps - Silverlight

2010 Tour De France on Bing Maps

Seattle.gov 'My Neighborhood' - Bing Maps

Azure SQL 2008 - Bing Maps - Near Route Demo

Draggable Routes Demo - Bing Maps API - Windows Azure

BusTrack Windows Phone 7 App - Bing Maps

Bing Maps South Africa World Cup 2010 App

Create a Treasure Map with Bing

The King of Bing Maps Challenge

Free Ice Cream with Bing Maps

Bing Health Maps

Microsoft Fuselabs - Bing Twitter Map

Why isn't my Tweet showing up?

What about privacy?We are only showing public Tweets (which is the default setting when you sign up at Twitter). Please remember that when you create a public Tweet anyone may be able see your Tweet content and location. Tweet with care.

How can I find specific Tweets?

Taxi City - the Bing Maps Game

More Bing Maps Apps

Bing Maps gets Navigation for Windows Phones

National Geographic Global Action Atlas using Bing Maps

Global Action Atlas by National Geographic

Create a Floor Plan with Bing Maps

Bing Maps Webcasts - April 2010

The World's Newspapers Mapped

GeoSynth - using Bing Maps

Coachella Live Twitter Bing Map

Volcanic Ash Cloud on Bing Maps

Explore Doctor Who in Wales Bing Map

Bing Maps Apps Innovations

Bing Maps Live Boat Tracking

UK Bing Maps User Group

Tom Clancy Splinter Cell Game

April 2010: Bing Maps Webcasts

Bing Maps on the BBC

New Bing Map Apps

Integrating BING Maps with SharePoint 2010

Bing Maps & Google Maps

Bing Maps & SQL Azure Support April 2010

Get Your Own Bing Twitter Map

Bing iPhone App Version 1.1

Bing Maps Flying You To The Stars