Jeff Kelisky, General Manager of Mapping and Local for Microsoft began by stating the main focus of the future for Bing maps. He stated that in place already was a framework on which developers can produce apps that use location information to produce and develop exciting and innovative applications that are grounded in maps. Before showing some examples of these applications he outlined a number of substantial changes to Bing Maps.

Changes

• A more fluid experience –  The whole user experience of Bing Maps is now a  smoother operation. For example, when zooming in on an area Bing Maps now turns into the bird’s eye view of the area upon reaching a set zoom in response to users comments and demands.
• Drag and drop directions – It is now possible to drop one pin in one area, and a second pin on another area of the map and ask for either walking or driving directions from pin 1 to pin2.
• New StreetSide experience (even Jeff Kelisky referred to it as “Street View” a few times!) – Currently only working in some parts of the US, but data is being collected in major cities.
• Map Apps – applications that run alongside Bing Maps. This is where the rest of the presentation focused.

Map Apps

Various applications can now be created with Bing Maps as a grounding. For example, the Twitter app displays locational tweets on the map itself. It is possible within the app to search tweets containing certain words. Bing Maps then displays these tweets with a flag icon.

Another application enables users to calculate the cost of a taxi journey from one place to another such as from Heathrow Airport to Victoria Station. It gave a pretty accurate estimate.

Windows Phone 7

A demo of Windows Phone 7 followed, with emphasis on how it uses Bing Maps. Window Phone 7 triangulates user location with GPS as well as using SIM information, giving a more accurate location of the user.

A hard “search” button is built into all Windows Phone 7 devices. While in Bing Maps, users can press this and instantly start searching their query.

For example, if you were out and searched for Pizza in Bing Maps, a map pops up with local pizza houses labelled. With these labels, Bing Maps also pulls the phone number, email address, reviews and what else is close to said location from Bing’s local database.

Three software developers then talked about how they used Bing Maps.

Earthware

Brian Norman – Technical Director, Earthware, spoke about how they use Bing Maps to create theworldcupmap.com

He stated that the aim of the project was to provide a “ground breaking mapping experience”, one in which all areas of news and video was pulled in and displayed on a map. He used the term “mapumentary”, the idea of information gathered from other sources and displayed on a map. For examples users could click on a stadium, while on the maps and see information about the games played as well as numerous information videos associated with that area.

Shoothill

Rod Plummer, Managing Director at Shoothill, started out by stating that there is a wealth of data out on the Internet, but that it is all over the place and hard to locate. A use of Bing Maps is to display some of this information on a map. He gave the example of displaying a heat map of MP’s expenses. He they gave a more detailed account of his work with MSN to produce maps about the Battle of Britain

http://news.uk.msn.com/in-depth/world-war-two/battle-of-britain/default.aspx

The Battle of Britian Map contains a current-day aerial view. On top of that, is a box in which users can select different maps or flight plans by dragging the box over the map and selecting which map or flight plan they want to see. The user can accurately see historical maps in relation to their present day grounding.

Fortune Cookie

Ben Morris, Head of technology at Fortune Cookie spoke about their use of Bing Maps to create a Journey Planner for their client, Europcar. The Journey Planner needed to be mobile as well as social so that users could upload their own photos, comments or recommendations.

The software allows a user to plan a drive while on holiday, showing accurate road maps, comments and recommendations as well as views along the way. He stated that users enjoyed a deep level of engagement and the average user time with the product was between 5 and 10 minutes.

Questions and Answers

A member of the audience asked whether  Bing itself would archive maps and produce a historical map archive. Jeff Kelisky said that this would be up to developers themselves to produce, but that the data would be available if a developer wanted to do this.

Another question was regarding user generated content. It was said that in the future it could be possible for members of the public to alert companies or councils to issues in their area via Bing Maps. For example, alerting a council of some dumped rubbish.

The new feature allows users to see exactly where in the world a particular tweet has originated from. It also shows nearby locations such as restaurants, shops and theatres.

Twitter Places is available on both twitter.com and mobile.twitter.com. The service was launched to coincide with the ongoing World Cup, allowing users to tag their tweets with the location from where they are sending the tweet, which is especially cool for those sitting inside the stadium and watching the FIFA World Cup live!

Tweets with embedded location information

The current football World Cup is just one example of how Twitter Places could be helpful. People receiving tweets regarding breaking news stories are more likely to be interested in tweets originating from the place where the event is actually happening.

Users who wish to see other tweets originating from a particular location can click a Twitter Place within a tweet to see all recent tweets from that location.

Foursquare and Gowalla will be integrated into Twitter Places, as many users on these sites already automatically tweet check-ins. Twitter will also release an API to allow developers to integrate their applications with Twitter Places.

Twitter Places will be made available to users across 65 countries in the course of about one week. Mobile applications such as Twitter for iPhone, Android and Blackberry will also soon have access to Twitter Places.

Register local listings on Bing For Business

Bing might not be anywhere near the top choice for UK searchers, but it is believed to have the potential to reach 30 million users in the U.K. through the search boxes available on various Microsoft properties such as Internet Explorer, MSN and Windows Live.

Businesses that register with Bing for Business in order to establish a local presence on Bing Maps could be more visible to consumers.

While Microsoft promotes Bing’s local service as a simple 3-step process for businesses wishing to increase their visibility on the search engine, the reality is not quite as simple.

First, business owners or representative must add their business details to Bing’s local listings. Rather than handling the process in-house, Bing U.K. has outsourced it to a company called 118information. The process breaks down here itself for many businesses.

Once the user has verified that the business is not alreay listed on 118information, a new listing can be submited via a form that requires the business details as well as details about a “Senior Decision Maker”.

What’s worse, the form does not even mention a privacy policy, link to one or give users the option to opt out of being spammed by Microsoft’s selected partner and their partners!

Anyone with experience dealing with telemarketers will know that when someone asks for a “senior decision maker”, they are asking for permission to spam, online, offline and over the telephone!

Once a business has been verified, its information will be displayed on various Microsoft services including Instant Answers, Local Search and Maps.

The second and third steps that Microsoft recommend are registering the business website with Bing investing in pay per click advertising to highlight their products and service.

If Microsoft hopes to catch up with Google Maps or even local search services such as Yelp and FourSquare, they will definitely need to improve they way they go about collecting data to being with, in order to have a comprehensive set of listings, which users can then trust to deliver the results they need.

The new Place Pages for Mobile will provide relevant information about places of interest in a given neighbourhood, to people on the go. Apart from giving the exact location of a shop, hotel, restaurant, tourist spot or any other business, the service will also provide a lot of detailed information about the place, including opening times, users reviews, ratings and images of the place.

As with the regular Place Pages, the mobile Place Pages can be accessed by clicking on the relevant location pinpointed on Google Maps.

Instead of including a mini map within the place pages, Google requires users to instead have to click on a ‘map’ button, which isn’t really smart for a mobile interface where fewer clicks are always better.

At present, the new Place Pages for Mobile are only available on Android-powered handsets and the iPhone and iPod in the U.S.A.

Interested users can view the service through a google.com search on their smartphones. They then have to click on the relevant local business listing on the search results page.

The community page is essentially a new version of the Facebook Page. They were created to stop people from building Fan Pages on topics that are neither brands nor famous personalities.

In the past, users have created Fan Pages on trivial topics such as “I bet I can find 1,000,000 who HATE Miley Cyrus”, which should have perhaps been a rant for a celebrity forum or a Facebook group, but should never really have been a Facebook Page.

Now, people who are interested in a topic can network with each other on Community Pages.

These pages are connected with the Bing Maps Platform, so if a particular community page is associated with a geographical location, the place will also be pinpointed on a Bing Map that will be visible on the page.

Community Pages are still in the beta phase. Facebook and Bing aim to turn the new service into a site much like Wikipedia, Squidoo or Mahalo, where shared knowledge is available on any topic. To start with, the page will show information from Wikipedia, but Facebook looks forward to contributions from users on the subject.

In order to drive users to these pages, Facebook will suggest specific pages to users based on their interests, place of residence and other details mentioned on the users’ profiles. Users will always have the option to accept pages suggested or to ignore page suggestions.

Community Pages will be public, so users must keep in mind that any comments they make or pictures they post will be visible to all users.

Facebook Community Page for Johannesburg, Gauteng

These real estate seekers can now make use of Google Maps to solve various problems before actually making the deal. They can first use Google Street View to get a detailed idea of what the neighbourhood is like, and to decide whether or not it would be suitable for their requirements.

Next, home buyers / renters can get directions on how to get to the locality. They can also make use of Google Transit to find out the routes they would be required to use once they move into that locality.

Now, when users want to look for some information about real estate, they can enter a query on Google Maps, say, ‘homes for sale’ in a particular city or a specific area of the city, and Google Maps will provide all the results on a map with a box at the side which will give details of each property available on the listing.

As a further improvement, they will not only highlight the 10 best properties with pins on the map but will also put small circles on all the other listings in the given locality. By clicking on each individual marker or circle, further details about that property will be displayed.

Based on feedback received from users, Google will now provide the address of the property first, followed by the number of bedrooms and bathrooms instead of the other way around, as they used to do earlier.

Users can now see all the properties available to them, at a glance on the web in the comfort of their own home or office, before narrowing down their choices, and then actually visiting just one or two properties before finalizing the deal.

Real estate listings can be posted one at a time via a form on Google, through data feeds or by tying in estate agency databases with the Maps system via a Google Base API. Listings for the same property from multiple agencies get grouped together

At present this service is only available in the U.S. and Australia and New Zealand.

• Google Maps US real estate search
• Australia real estate search
• New Zealand real estate search

On the night of November 26, ten well trained, motivated and heavily armed terrorists landed in Mumbai by boat and went on a killing spree, in and around some of the extremely well known and crowded places in the Southern part of the city, creating mayhem and killing over 170 people over the next 60 hours.

A lawyer, Amit Karkhanis has now filed a public interest litigation in the Bombay High Court, against Google, because it is believed that the terrorists used maps provided on Google Earth to study their targets. He has demanded that Google should be made to block images of sensitive places in the country.

Google has issued a statement condemning the attacks and said that they “stand by the citizens of India and the city of Mumbai as they recover from the attacks.”

They however defend themselves saying, that theirs is not the only source from which such information could be made available. It is easily available to anyone who is willing to pay for the purchase of these images from public or commercial sources.

They also believe that advantages of easy access to such tools and technology are far greater than their potential misuse by a few misguided minds.

This certainly seems like a genuine argument, as the same Google Earth has been used in the past to coordinate relief operations in times of floods, cyclones etc.

It is also obvious, that those involved would have found some other means to achieve their devious objectives, even if Google Earth had not been available to them.

One must also bear in mind, that apart from making use of Google Earth, they also made use of other technological facilities such as, satellite phones, cell phones and internet phones to stay in touch with each other and their bosses during the course of their operation.

As the saying goes, ‘there are two sides to every coin’. So also, all forms of technological advances can be abused when in the wrong hands.

Does that mean, that we must decide to ban any further technological advances in the future?

Since the prices invariably vary from service station to station even in the same city – for instance, in the city of Chicago, the rates of petrol range from $3.54 to $4.33 per gallon – users can save by searching for nearby petrol pumps on Yahoo! and identifying the place with the cheapest prices.

Users searching for petrol prices or service stations in a specific city or zip code will find a list of prices and addresses of 5 nearby providers alongside a map showing their exact locations.

Even if the city name or zip code is not entered, Yahoo! will try to provide details about petrol pumps nearest to the user, based on the IP address.

Prices seem to be obtained through some sort of collaboration with oil price comparison site, gasbuddy.com, though Yahoo! has not clarified whether any relationship exists at present. The service works only in the US and Canada.
Yahoo!’s main competitor, Google, also provides a list of local gas stations in map searches, but so far they have not added any feature that compares prices.

People may of course argue that it does not make sense to travel too far to save a few pennies per gallon of petrol, as you will end up using more petrol to reach there, thus wasting more money, or at least negating the effects of the money saved. However, it is the availability of information, which gives one the power of choice, that is important here. Also, if drivers are aware of the stations that are cheaper, they can always plan in advance and fill up at that station when passing by.

With the current financial scenario, the prices of oil have fallen in the last few weeks, but it still does not hurt to be able to save a few pennies. In fact, the stock market and banking sector crash are all the more reason for people to save money as and when they can, and Yahoo! might win some favour in this respect.

To start with, this service will only be accessible on BlackBerry and some Java enabled phones, but they hope to bring this technology to other handsets in the near future.

Google Maps for Mobile will now be capable of the same level of imagery as the desktop version, i.e. it will show a 360 degree view of the point in question.

This new feature will help users to pinpoint the exact location of a shop, restaurant, office theatre etc. when they are on the go in an unfamiliar location. All they need to do is click on “Street View” on their mobile phone. They will then be able to see the appropriate street with all details in it, so there is no chance of missing the store, restaurant etc. and having to run around in circles. Even tourists should now have no difficulty going around a new town with the help of this service.

There is also a section here that gives detailed information about bus, train and ferry services to and from different locations along with the fares and timings of the local transport available.

It will be possible to use Street View from any location for which photography is available to Google. It is also possible to click on the map, and select Street View. Street View can be seen on the full screen or as an overlay on the map. The view can also be rotated to see the surrounding area from different angles as one proceeds along the road.

Another feature that Google has incorporated is ‘business reviews’, which will allow users to check whether or not a shop actually sells what the user is looking for, before making a trip down there.

It is also possible to go from one place to another on foot, following the walking directions which have been incorporated. (this feature is presently in beta.)

Google has also increased the speed of these search operations and improved the accuracy of location of a place, under their MyLocation feature. According to Brighthand.com, the MyLocation feature will work best in thickly populated places, which will obviously have more cellular towers, thus improving the cell tower triangulation on the user’s smartphone.

The latest version of Google Maps for mobile can be accessed at google.com/gmm.

This tool, which was first launched in June 2008, will help to fill in details of locations on the relatively empty Google Maps of some nations. It will initially be used only in certain developing nations, where sophisticated data mapping techniques are not available.

Google is currently rolling out the service in India. They hope to be able to use this facility all over the world at a later stage.

By using Map Maker, it will be possible for anybody to add or edit information about roads, forests, tourist destinations and so on. Even factories, restaurants and airports can be marked. A drop-down list is provided, offering several options users can select from to provide the most appropriate label for a place they add to the map. This way, even though several people will contribute to the map of a given place, the tagging system will remain consistent and simple.

Individual neighborhoods can be identified through satellite imaging. However, this becomes a lot more difficult in the countryside, where vast stretches of paddy fields pock-marked by little villages all melt into each other.

Strangely enough, it is also not possible to label a village, town or city. So if Google Maps are unaware of the thousands of little villages in rural India, the residents or tourists who have been there cannot actually mark them on Map Maker.

The creator of this tool, Dr. Lalitesh Katragadda, says, “Google Map Maker solves an inherent need especially for countries such as ours (India) where maps data is sparse. This product embodies our passion to empower people everywhere, to share knowledge of the places they know best by creating maps.”

Although the changes made by people will be incorporated automatically into Google Maps, Google will be able to moderate entries if necessary.

Microsoft are adding new features to their Windows Mobile and BlackBerry services, such as improved mapping and a voice interface for the Blackberry. InformationWeek reports that these new services will allow clients to speak into their Blackberry handsets, instead of having to enter queries through the number pads, which can be quite a tedious process.

Users will now be able to find directions to restaurants, theatres, offices and other places of interest by simply speaking the name of the place they want into their mobile devices. It is also expected that customers will shortly be able to map a contacts address, and view custom maps on Virtual Earth on their mobiles.

Bill Gates has long been in favor of technologies such as voice, touch and pen-based computing, but there were several obstacles to this in the past. Voice recognition technology has made a lot of progress in the last year and has been available on Microsoft Live Search Mobile for Windows Mobile devices since October of last year. The support for additional devices will make this service especially useful in cars as the driver will no longer have to look away from the road.

AOL has also launched a new mobile service. The Market Intelligence Service reports that the beta version of AOL MyMobile will allow BlackBerry users to access personalised AOL services through mobile phones. They have also started an AIM TXT short-code service for all major carriers in the U.S.

AOL MyMobile

Windows mobile users will now be able to receive personalised services by downloading AOL MyMobile. This platform will provide integrated relevant Web and mobile search results. AOL MyMobile has drop-down lists and menus, which are easy to access. It will also remember user favorites and recent requests.

Users will be able to save directions to various places and even access them off-line or outside their network range. News of these innovations has raised the share price of AOL’s parent company Time Warner Inc, which has been rumoured to be on the lookout for a buyer for the former Internet giant.

Users can currently browse a map of the world and click on the markers to view images from various continents, zoom in on a specific location to find photographs from that place or view a geographic layout of a particular user’s images.

The upgraded application will provide a new, enhanced world map with photo streams, and something called Flickr Places, which would enable one to limit searches to specific locations and see a variety of information deemed relevant to a particular spot upon the globe, be it a city, town, or even a single landmark. Flickr Places will identify 100,000 searchable hotspots from the existing map application, and combine it with the advanced search and new features such as “hot tags”.

The new tool is particularly suitable for travelers to view and share photographs. Visitors to the Yahoo!-owned social media site can filter results on the maps application by group, person or date of the image.

Flickr receives over 40 million visitors each month and hosts more than 2 billion images. Flickr maps can be accessed by clicking on the link below:

http://www.flickr.com/map/

This is not a joke. The actual Google maps page in the UK (maps.google.co.uk) currently sports this logo. Though, Google Maps US still uses the old logo.

Google is loved for the “fun” image it has cultivated. Employees at the search giant are known for their sense of humour. They often change their logo to mark special occasions such as Thanksgiving, New Year’s Day, Halloween, St. Patrick’s Day and even off-beat occasions such as Arthur Conan Doyle’s birthday, Persian New Year, Earth day and Bloomsday.

View more Google holiday logos

Many of those one-off logos, though, seem to be better thought-out than the new Google Maps logo!