Battle of the search engine maps
by Andrew Craig
The search engines are always trying to find ways to tempt the user into using their specific site. After all, they are in it to make money, lots of money, buckets of the stuff in fact. Mark my words and mark them well. In the future we will all live and work at the whim of GoogleCorp… until that day, there is some competition in the shape of Microsoft’s oddly named Bing!
Now last year amid much fanfare and cries of invaded privacy (who can forget the poor guy caught leaving a house of ill repute) Google launched ‘Google street view’ a thoroughly marvellous piece of photo tomfoolery that allowed you to walk a virtual mile through any major city in the U.S. and then the UK and Europe.
What a fantastic idea, I used it to plan my walk from Manchester town centre to Salford Quays for my interview here at Red C. It was easy and apart from the car fumes, cyclists racing down the pavement and speeding buses it was just like the real thing. Now in the interest of healthy competition, Bing are also working on a street view tool… imaginatively entitled Bing Maps.
So I thought I’d give the new Bing Maps a whirl and for this experiment I will be visiting Los Angeles, California (due to Bing Maps still being in Beta and only covering major cities in the U.S.).
So far, one point to Google.
Now apart from being fun to play around with, the main reason I would use either of these tools is to get a feel for the area before going there. That’s where Bing beats Google hands down.
Next to both street view maps is a side panel that will show local results for any business that you are searching for. Bing Maps has included a very easy to use GUI interface that with a click of the button gives you options for local services, restaurants, gyms, shops, public buildings as well as upcoming events and local news. Simply click on the MAP APPS button and you are given a fine array of options that will help you find said amenities as well as roadside attractions (I found a giant chair in a car park), urban graffiti and even twitter feeds.
So during my virtual tour of Los Angeles I found a giant chair, a reggae music festival over 2 days from the 22nd February and even better on the 18th there is a Pirate’s Dinner Adventure Show, arrrrr! And as I write the L.A.P.D. is actively enforcing speed restrictions between 6am and 4 pm today, what they do the rest of the year I don’t know but today don’t speed if you are in Los Angeles, you have been warned!
Bing Maps just seems to be a lot faster, more fluid and easier to use than Google Street View it just does not have the coverage yet.
Give it a try on the Beta site yourself by clicking here.
Tags: Bing, Bing Maps, Google, Google AdSense, google adwords, Google Maps, Google Street View, GUI interface, Internet Agency, Manchester Advertising Agency, Marketing Agency, Microsoft, Online Advertising Agency, Online Agency, PPC Agency Manchester, PPC Specialist, Search Engine Marketing, SEO Company
