Bing Maps Beta: Very cool, but limited

Bing Maps

Microsoft’s Bing took a major step forward Wednesday in adding rich mapping and image data to its search engine, but until it assembles more data, pretty pictures aren’t enough to beat the Google Maps juggernaut.

Bing Maps Beta was released during a presentation at Microsoft’s offices here. It’s a Silverlight-based application that runs inside Bing Maps and adds Microsoft’s version of Google Street View–called Streetside–to Bing Maps, as well as enhanced “bird’s eye” images that let you swoop over cities.

I spent some quality time Tuesday night with the new Bing Maps Beta, zooming through the streets of San Francisco and New York and testing out various searches. The best part about Bing Maps Beta–by far–are the rich transitions between high-resolution street-level or bird’s-eye view photos as you move around a city, making it feel like you’re actually driving down the road. Nice