Bing Maps adds 270TB of Bird’s Eye imagery, the most to date, and expands Venue Maps to 4,700 in 59 countries

Microsoft today updated Bing Maps with its largest shipment of Bird’s Eye imagery yet, nearly 270 terabytes of data. The company also expanded the number of Venue Maps to more than 4,700 in 59 countries and added a new “Report a problem” feature.

So far, Microsoft has published a total of 1,452,958 sq km, or half a petabyte of data, in Bird’s Eye scenes from around the world. The Bing Maps coverage for this release is shown in yellow (it’s mainly for the US, some Europe, plus a little Canada and Australia):

Venue Maps meanwhile let you navigate your way around malls, airports, amusement parks, casinos, shopping districts, convention centers, museums, stadiums, universities, hotels, and so on, using your Windows phone, tablet, and PC. It’s Microsoft’s answer to Google’s indoor floor plans.

Here’s an example:

Microsoft also explained that while using Bing Maps within a zoom level of 1,000 feet, purple (stores) and green (restaurants) polygons will appear to outline particular points of interest for a given venue. Clicking on any outlined polygon will give you a directory featuring a full list of options to visually explore additional floors of the venue.

Of course, none of this is really that interesting unless you actually try the features out for yourself. Here’s a quick list of examples that Microsoft provides:

Bird’s Eye: Tampere, Rome, Kaanapali, Stavanger, Milan, Ringerike,Toledo, Kuopio, Melbourne, Eugene, Pescara, Saratoga Springs, andTokyo.
Venue Maps: Mall of America, Boston, Singapore Zoo, Las Vegas, andKing’s College.

As for the new “Report a problem” feature, all you have to do is click the link, select whether the location is not there anymore or has incorrect information, hit Continue, and select a final option or type in a comment. Unfortunately, Microsoft doesn’t say how quickly it will respond to reported issues, if at all.

source:http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2013/06/11/bing-maps-adds-270tb-of-birds-eye-imagery-the-most-to-date-and-expands-venue-maps-to-4700-in-59-countries/

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