Bing Maps : A lot of enthusiasm for the new version

Bing Maps has migrated to Silverlight mode so as to be able to display 3D images and 360° photos taken from the ground level.

Between the old version of Bing Maps and the new which is currently only available in a beta version, things have changed from black to white.

Microsoft’s online mapping service has some changes planned for it, with the first of these being the integration of the Silverlight technology which makes Bing Maps a lot smoother in transition, along with the integration of Photosynth so that numerous pictures can be intelligently put together (put online by the users) so that the user has the impression that they have been immersed in a 3D environment.

The first pictures seen are not from Google Maps Street View, but rather Streetside, with their scope currently being limited to a few large cities in the United States. The aim is to offer the user a 360° panoramic tour of the city thanks to the pictures taken from ground level.

This new Bing Maps engine also welcomes a new range of Web applications among which you will notice a dedicated Twitter function so that you can display tweets linked to the geographic area.

A test version of Bing Maps Silverlight providing a lot of options can be found here.