First Look: Streetside in Bing Maps | Laura Foy

exoteric
embarassingly sequential

Hot damn this looks and feels good!

Ian2
Proud to geek ..

Wow, havn't actually watched the video yet but just spent the last 15mins playing with the new live environment. Awesome.

What resolution are those streetside images?

section31
OutOfCoffeeException

In reply to Ian2

#Dec 2nd, 2009 @ 11:53 AM

it's just fun to play with Bing Maps but StreetView is US only

What are the plans to extend StreetView to other countries. I guess it's difficult. Googel had alot of problems in Europe.

Bas
It finds lightbulbs.

I think it would've been pretty funny if they just went all out and called it Bing Maps Streetview. I mean, why even try to hide that it's based on Streetview? Just make the guy orange too.

In fact, it's kind of dissapointing that both Laura and Chris are so obviously ignoring the massive Google-shaped elephant in the room and are acting like streetside imagery is amazing new technology. We've all seen Google Streetview, guys. You know it, and we know that you know it. So why act like this? I mean, why was the line "What a great way to check out the hotel you're gonna stay at" necessary? We know that's what you can do with streetside imagery, we've been doing it with Google Streetview (or even Bing's Bird's Eye) for years. The only reason I can think of, and this is gonna piss off Charles but frankly, it's pissing me off too, is that this video is all about marketing the new Bing maps to us, and that sucks. Show us the tech, fess up when something you've created is similar to the competition, and stop telling us how great something is just because Bing now has it too. Tell us why it's better instead.

That aside though, I'm pretty impressed with most of the stuff being demoed. I think it's weird that this video seems to focus on the streetside imagery as the big new feature, when I'm much more impressed with the seamless zooming between satellite/bird's eye/3D geometry imagery, and the integrated geotagged Potosynths. Also the fact that Bing Maps is now Silverlight. The Silverlight maps control is so much better than the AJAX one (and the UX is leaps and bounds over Google Maps as well), and I'm glad that this seems to mean that they're at least planning to switch to a Silverlight version of Bing Maps by default now.

exoteric
embarassingly sequential

Good points, Bas. I also distinctly remember a Ping episode casually downplaying Google Streetview. The sincerest form of flattery is imitation but this is not a one-way street.

This is niceness and it's a bit hard to blame Microsoft for spinning a little while being transparent*. This is is looking very nice on Silverlight, very smooth, and it's definitely going places. I'm also looking forward to a potentially hardware accellerated Silverlight 4 version (and later, sitting inside a hardware accellerated browser as well.)

This also reminds me of the great new Pivot tool from the Live Labs team which actually embeds a browser which looks very cool with smooth zooming.

One interesting thing to contemplate: will people be able to help build street maps in the future or is that what photosynth is for. What was it, 600 pictures inside the residence - how great would the photosynth look if it had, say an order-of-magnitude more pictures? Completely smooth 3D traversal inside the residence?

Also: taking so many picures that the granularity and precision increases further and makes it possible to even remove artifacts such as cars and people (when in motion); on the other hand that would make everywhere look like a ghost city which may not be the desired effect heh.

(* actually Charles often has a very balanced view - which he can afford because often Microsoft has the upper hand in some way, with great products either on the shelves or on the way to the shelves and with very long-term plans and projects.)

Bas
It finds lightbulbs.

In reply to exoteric

#Dec 2nd, 2009 @ 1:56 PM

The tech is nice, no doubt. Does this make Bing Maps orders of magnitude better than Google Maps? I think so. But what irks me is the fact that the obvious comparison to streetview is not only being ignored, but the way we're being talked down to like we know nothing of what the competition is offering.

* actually Charles often has a very balanced view

If what I said came across as suggesting that Charles is biased: that's not what I meant. What I meant was that Charles often reacts like a bull to a red flag when the word 'marketing' pops up in terms of Channel 9, and if this is not that, I don't know what is, so I can imagine Charles being as unhappy with this as I am.

jason818_253.33
Yippi skippy

In reply to Bas

#Dec 2nd, 2009 @ 2:09 PM

I new some one would get on here and complain about Google having streetview first.

I think the integration of photosynth is very slick. A little disconcerting to think you might just happen to be able to look in side some ones home. Smiley

edit: i just took a test drive of the new bing maps site. i enjoyed it very much. Still a couple things i would like to see done with photosync but for the most part very cool. I think this is one that 'marketing' should get a hold of and share with as many people as posible.

natelawrence

Overall I'm very happy that this day has come but I do echo Bas' criticism on the lack of objectivity with regards to Google Street View.

Other than that, clearly this is labeled Beta and I understand that, but I have a few gripes right off the bat:

>> Because it's depending on Silverlight 3's perspective transform, the transition to Photosynths is marred by the fact that only the portion of the aerial imagery that was within the viewport before the transition is tilted when approaching the first image in the synth. I mean, we saw textured infinite planes on the Super NES back in the early 1990s. Surely Microsoft can top that on computers that are a decade and a half newer than a legacy home console.

>> No aerial imagery is visible when viewing the synth in Overhead View. Seriously?

>> When in Streetside Mode, quads and pointclouds from surrounding synths are not loaded up automatically. You guys have a treasure in Photosynth but Google Street View is beating the pants off you in terms of exposing the quads for their Panoramio and Picasa users' geotagged photos as soon as you're within proximity to them.

>> Related to that third point... only one synth at a time? Come on, guys. When I've synthed an entire street and then done higher grain detail synths of my house or a flower bed on that street, I want to see their pointclouds together in overhead view as I browse over the satellite imagery.

By the way... I've wondered for ages now: Is Photosynth marketed as Photosync in Europe? So many people seem to call it that.

P.S. Laura, David ought to be a master synther, what with being in charge of the Photosynth team. Wink

Sven Groot
My name has 9 letters. Coincidence? I think not...

I haven't watched the video yet but I've played with the new Bing Maps Silverlight beta. The Silverlight experience is amazing. So much better than the javascript-based versions of both Google Maps and Bing Maps. I also like the Photosynth integration.

However, I still won't be using it, because:

Google Maps has better maps of Japan, and better aerial images (made up for by Bing's bird's eye view; the map is the killer though).
Google Maps for Japan has some English place names on the maps; Bing's are still exclusively Japanese.
Bing Maps doesn't understand Japanese addresses unless you use the Japanese version of the site (which I don't want). The Silverlight version doesn't understand Japanese addresses even on the Japanese version (but that's probably because it's beta). Google Maps understands Japanese addresses typed in both Japanese and romaji, regardless of what language the site is in.
Google Maps can give directions for public transportation (trains); Bing Maps does not.
Google Maps has street view in Tokyo; Bing Maps does not.

I do prefer the UI of Bing Maps, especially with Silverlight. But you've got to make it as usable as Google Maps for Japan, even when using an English version of the site, before I'd consider switching.

EDIT: Both Google and Bing Maps seem to assume that the Japanese maps will be exclusively used by Japanese people. Although Google is leagues ahead of Bing (with at least some English names, support for searching with romaji, and being even remotely usable without using the localised version of the site) it's still not usable unless you can read at least some Japanese.

If Bing could offer maps of Japan geared towards non-Japanese on the English version of the site, I know at least several dozen foreign students here in Tokyo who'd switch in an instant. Plus it'd be usable by e.g. tourists who don't speak Japanese, which currently neither Google nor Bing is.