Posts About ‘Streetside’

Bing Streetside Goes UK, Germany and France

I’ve reported on Bing Streetside before. In my view it could potentially even be a better product than Google’s Streetview. But like many of Bing’s products (and many other products too by the way) Streetside was only ‘really’ available in the US. Now it seems as if Microsoft finally found their way into Europe.

After the transition between Yahoo and Bing (also listen to our radioshow with Microsoft’s Cedric Chambaz about that) Bing now is starting to make Streetside available in parts of the United Kingdom, Germany and France. (more…)

Microsoft ‘s Photosynth team takes another step: Read / Write World

Ever since I first saw Blaise Aguera y Arcas present about Photosynth I have been impressed by what Microsoft is doing with the technique. Based on the technique which makes use of images made by you and me and posted for example on Flickr, Microsoft developed several new products like Streetside, StreetSlide imagery and live video in maps.

Microsoft really has some nice material there, yet Google Streetview also remains dominant here. That without a doubt will have something to do with the market share of Bing.

At the Where 2.0 O’Reilly conference Microsoft’s Blaise Aguera y Arcas talked about yet another impressive new feature concerning imagery/mapping connection: the Read / Write World. (more…)

Bing starts chase: updates on Maps, Local, Mobile, Travel, Image Search and Facebook

If you live in or near San Francisco you can attend a lot of great conferences, gatherings or press events. One place I would have liked to have been this week was the Bing Search Summit.

At the Summit Bing presented a lot, and I mean a lot, of new features. This might be the actual start of the chase Bing is preparing towards Google.

One of the things Bing announced that Facebook likes will become more important in ranking but there are also changes announced on local, Maps, Mobile, Travel and Image Search. (more…)

(Bada) Bing has done it again: Street Slide in Bing Maps, amazing

I’ve spoken before, and expressed my admiration with it, about Bing Maps and what they are doing. The use of Streetside in Bing was a huge step forward for Bing Maps in the competition with Google Streetview. And while Google is fighting law suits with Streetview Microsoft simply continues to develop their maps functionality.

At Siggraph 2010 Microsoft presented yet another add on to Bing Maps which has a high “WOW” factor: Street Slide. Together with Bing Streetside and an updated and improved Photosynth navigation (with new Ambient Point Clouds for View Interpolation to improve the transitions effect, see video at the end of this post) Microsoft is really making a huge step here. Check out this video:

So what makes this so special?

Streetview is nice, Streetside was already a bit nicer, why is this so special then? Well, its a number of things. When you’ve seen the video you’ll know already but just to highlight a few things which make this a very special Map application:
(more…)

History pin: the extra use of Streetview

When Google, or any other service for that matter, launches a new product it is almost never immediately clear how useful the product can really be. That was also the case with Streetview. Yes, it was a very nice feature and you could actually see your own house if you were lucky (in my case even my car could be found). But the real use? With the open web, the real use of a product usually becomes clearer when others adopt a product to start using it for their own purposes. The integration of different products makes that a product all of a sudden makes sense.

Now there is already a lot of ‘sense’ in Streetview, but Historypin is one of these features which gives that little extra touch. This Google Maps Mash up in my opinion is something which could be very usefull in for example history lessons at schools. (more…)

Forget Google Streetview, here is Bing Streetside: wow!

We probably have all seen tons of pictures of Google Streetview cars and trycicles. The presence of the cars and the fact they were taking pictures have gotten many to ask questions about the possible privacy issues. IF Google would ever be forced to do something about their Streetview-pictures, there is a very good alternative waiting for you over at Bing. Heck, I’m even not waiting for Google, I’m switching over now. The “new” Bing Maps is called Streetside Photos and is currently only available in Seattle, San Francisco and Vancouver (Canada).

But what a sight. Streetside uses the Photosynth technology to integrate Flickr photos in Bing Maps. Thus making it a much richer experience than the ‘simple’ Google Streetview. Check it out: