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"Microsoft has been trying to take down Google Search by not only advertising like mad, but by launching feature after feature.   Now Bing is looking to outdo one of Google's best features: Google Maps.  And it's making its attempt with its own version of Street View, integration with Microsoft Photosynth and a Silverlight interface.\nMicrosoft has just launched the beta version of Bing Maps.  It is Microsoft's reinvention of mapping apps, and it is something to behold.  Utilizing Silverlight, you can not only get directions, but explore city streets and even take virtual tours of the world's museums.The core to the new Bing Maps beta is Silverlight, Microsoft's competitor to Adobe Flash.  Since the entire Bing Maps experience is done within Silverlight, it ends up being a smooth, visually rich experience.  It doesn't open up new Web pages, but instead pulls up information nearly seamlessly.  In fact, you can not only see the map, but look at it from an aerial and bird's eye view.\nBecause of this, it also comes with a very slick Street View interface.  While nowhere as complete as Google Street View, it's easy to navigate.  In addition, it integrates with Photosynth, which generates 3D models of points of interest.  In a demo, Microsoft even provided a virtual 3D tour of a museum.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTwitter Maps\nPerhaps the killer feature of Bing Maps, though, are the Bing Map apps. Yes, you can utilize apps to mash-up (or as Microsoft calls it, \"mash-in\") things like traffic views, webcam feeds, restaurant information and Photosynth, which is in fact a Bing Map app.\nPerhaps the app that will get the most attention will be Twitter Maps, which utilizes the new Twitter geolocation API to map out tweets onto Bing Maps.  You can, for example, search for people discussing breakfast, parades or your favorite museum, and it will mpa out tweets about those things on the map.\nClearly Bing wants to make Google Maps seem prehistoric with its Silverlight-based interface.  And from what we've seen in today's demo at Bing's San Francisco headquarters, it's incredibly impressive.  It's still unclear how accurate map directions are or if this new interface can drive people to switch to Bing and Bing Maps, but it definitely cannot hurt.\nWe're going to have more information, screenshots and demos soon."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2009/12/02/bing-maps-beta/>