Redmond, Washington — If you are a Bing Maps user, you might discover some changes to the service’s aesthetic as well as some updated transit information. In furtherance of the metrofication of Microsoft and the unification of Bing Maps and Nokia Maps, a blog post on the Bing Search blog announced today several enhancements to the way its pushpins, popups, and transit info appear on Bing Maps.
Bing anticipates that the latest modifications will make it easier for users to find information on the map, explore venues and transit information. Bing recently released a Metro app for Bing Maps on Windows 8 platform.
Pushpins are the common components overlaid on Maps, these are revamped now along with the corresponding popup. As you can see, the pushpins are now Metro styled, with a flat blue look for search results (saved pins show up as orange) instead of the shaded pins of the past:
The popups have a stylish design with dark background that appear when you click on the pins and shows name of the place or location of the place while hovering over with mouse. Also, the color of the popup changes to white while showing full content of the popups. Clicking on a pushpins reveal a large popup with more information about the place or business.
Another major variation that you will discover is if you switch from map to satellite view, the color scheme of the information box will invert the colors so that the information remains easy to read. To make things easier to see in an aerial map, the popups change to a white background in that view:
Moreover, when you click on a pushpin to see the information, the pushpin itself decreases so you can see more of what is underneath it while a black box opens up to show you the name and other info related to that pin.
It looks like if that was not plenty of an update, Bing Maps also included some subtle changes to how directions appear when you are traveling via public transit. Namely, they have added colors to the routes you will be using so that they reflect the colors of the actual signage of the station or line you need. As you will see in the example below, it is a little clearer that a traveler going from East Williamsburg in New York City should take the L line (aka, 14th Street–Canarsie Local) because, well, the actual logo associated with the L line shows up in the map.
Public transport information in the US and UK have also been improved. Besides, many of the other changes are pretty self explanatory and there are more pictures at the Bing Maps blog. Well, move out there and discover something and have all the trouble in the world getting lost with these new updates at your disposal.