Google Maps is more or less the de facto standard for Internet maps nowadays. Mapquest had its heyday, but has long been surpassed. Now Bing Maps is making a push to be the next big thing in maps. Already they’ve got this “Bird’s Eye” view that shows buildings, etc. from an angle instead of directly overhead. It puts Google Maps’s satellite view to shame. I think the feature might still officially be in beta, but Gmail was “beta” for the longest time even with millions of people using it, so that label doesn’t have as much meaning as it used to.
But beyond that it looks like Bing Maps will get even more interesting in the near future. I came across this demonstration of how they plan to pull in more “augmented reality” types of features into Bing Maps. I won’t spoil it for you; just watch the video below. It starts getting nuts at about 5 minutes in, but don’t skip ahead. It’s better to have the full context of what they’ve already done and where they’re trying to go before you see the really mind-blowing stuff they’ve implemented recently.
