New York — Going on a shopping spree is an exciting event, but getting lost at the mall looking for a certain store or restaurant is an annoying experience. But thanks to Microsoft’s search engine, Bing, which announced on Wednesday a novel mobile browsing option that will make it a bit easier to find your way to Crate & Barrel at Bellevue Square or Starbucks at University Village.
While Bing already offered the mall maps functionality for the Web since last December — just in time for the holiday shopping season, the best use for such maps is on the mobile device. Now, the company’s mapping service has added floor plans for about 400 shopping malls to the Bing for Mobile service, allowing users to navigate retail outlets via smartphones.
Now, instead of having to traverse all the way to the caretaker at the ground floor to ask for a map, why not pull out your smartphone instead. Bing said it has expanded mall maps to m.bing.com, making it “easier to get where you are going and find what you need on the go.”
According to a post on the Bing Search Blog, the mall maps can be accessed on “mobile devices that support HTML5 capable browsers, including iPhone, Android, and RIM devices.”
Presenting an in-depth explanation on how to handle the new mobile feature, the Bing Blog writes, When searching from Bing Maps, the search results take advantage of Bings Maps/List split view providing a dynamic synchronization between a list and corresponding map in a single view. Shoppers can utilize these mobile maps not only to find a local shopping center but also to navigate their way while inside. Among other features, Bing’s mall maps highlights the business locations as the user scrolls across the map or through the listing.
“Venue maps are a great way to save time and annoyance when planning your next summer vacation or that last minute shopping trip — getting you in and out the door faster. Furthermore, we now also provide the capability to search on the map,” says the Bing Maps team. We have made finding mall maps an easy task from your desktop or m.bing.com. Just search for the mall name on Bing or Bing Maps, then click on the Mall Map link in the search results contact card.
“You can also view diverse levels of a specific venue by clicking the ‘Level’ button at the top of the screen and then selecting the correct level from the provided list,” the team says.
Moreover, Bing has also appended the ability to search from Bing Maps itself. Search results utilize the split view syncing a list and map view in a single view.
“Pan the map and hit refresh and the results in the list will change based on the position of the map,” the Bing team says. “The map emphasizes the business locations as you scroll through the list making it easy to see where all the options are located. Clicking on a list item such as a business listing will move the map to focus on that business. Similarly, clicking on a point of interest on the map updates the list.”
Nevertheless, with this launch, Bing is pushing aside third-party app developers and even shopping center owners such as Simon Properties that have already planted a stake in this ground, although the Bing functionality is not as robust as some of the other offerings on the market.
For example, Seattle-based Point Inside was an early pioneer in the field, which provides free mall and airport map app, and it just announced that it added 80 more mall maps to its service. These are interactive maps that help tourists find rides, places to eat, shops and other attractions as well as their own location within the parks, and how to get from one place to another.
According to ReadWriteWeb, which mentions that the service is not yet available to all users, but mobile users can visit m.Bing.com to examine the new feature when it finally goes live. For now, curious users can try out the Roosevelt Field mall navigator for desktop browsers to get a feel for the service.