Redmond, Washington — Microsoft has added some new dimension to its Bing Maps, which was already impressive in quite a few ways. If you are taking a trip by car this summer, Bing has added three new applications to its Maps service that looks to beat the Google Maps competitor a one-stop destination for making your trip a little easier.
Bing continues to bundle its mapping program with overlay data, instead of banking on third-party mashups and gradually it is becoming amazingly useful in doing so.
The above screenshot shows the three — A distance calculator; A Parking Finder and Gas Prices tool, all promises to facilitate people to plan trips and go about their daily lives more efficiently.The first of the three new features is a Distance Calculator Map App that helps you to find out how far it is from point A to point B. Today, many mapping application is capable of indicating the number of miles (or kilometers) between A and B; Still, this app can handle journeys with multiple legs, and take into account whether a person is flying or driving.
Let us say, for example, that you are planning to drive to see U2’s concert in Oakland next month. It will tell you the distance flying, driving and bussing. Furthermore, if you feel like meeting old buddies, you can drop additional flags/locations onto the map if you are planning to make several stops along the way, it will let you add as many of those as you would like to, so you can plan out different legs of a trip.
And to complement distance calculation, Bing has also added apps to find Gas Prices and Parking places. Both operate rather simply — The Gas Prices app displays the cost of gas within a five-mile radius of where you are searching from. Makers for each location dot the map, while the price, name, brand, and location are listed in a sidebar.
Lastly, the Parking Finder app, powered by BestParking.com is much the same — that displays not only location of parking lots/garages, but also additional information when you click on the marker or look for details on the sidebar such as hours, payment types accepted, and whether it is outdoor or indoor parking. There is also a cool tool that empowers you to calculate how much it will cost to park at your preferred locations, as well as look at photos of the place you will be leaving your beloved vehicle.
Interestingly, the Parking Finder Map App employs the Bing Maps One-Click Directions feature for computing directions to the respective lot. Simply click the link, and choose the most applicable cardinal direction from which you are coming and the route will be computed for you with step-by-step directions within Bing Maps.
Finally, only 16 cities have been covered for now, but the parking finder app would surely help rescue people from parking tickets, door bells, and malicious mischief when they are visiting a number of airports (67).
Microsoft makes a good case for these new apps being convenient tools for charting out a trip and, what is more is that these apps are all free, and do not require any downloads so long as your computer is already equipped with Silverlight.
Just visit Bing Maps, agree to “Explore the new Bing Maps,” and then click the “Map Apps” button.