Redmond, Washington — Back in April of this year we reported that Microsoft has announced that its Bing was bringing its visual mapping feature Streetside, the Redmond, Wash.-based software giants answer to Google’s ‘StreetView’, is now making its way to Europe. And the first Streetside images from the UK are now appearing.
Microsoft previously expressed that it is not going to try and map every street in every European capital. Rather it would focus on urban and more heavily trafficked areas–a sort of 80/20 bet. But, following Google into Europe Microsoft also benefits from the former’s earlier foul-ups, negotiations and litigation in various European countries, paving the way for street-level imagery.
Ever since the transition between Yahoo and Bing, Streetside has been available in the US since late 2009, but Bing now is starting to make Streetside available in parts of the United Kingdom, Germany and France, and earlier this year cars armed with cameras began rolling around London, and according to the Bing driving schedule, London was always scheduled to finish in August some time.
Interestingly, Streetside is different from Street-View in a few ways. Not only does it have a slightly different look, it is also built in a different way, using Photosynth material, Bing is making certain that the product is extremely optimized for mobile devices. It also for example displays local blogs, which can tell you a lot about an area. So, if you visit Bing Maps now, and click on the “person” icon above the maps, you will see various areas smudged with blue–all of them are in the US, apart from one spot over London.
Bing Maps has decided to “diverge” its approach unfortunately. The richest Bing Maps experience requires the installation of Flash alternative Silverlight. Now, when you click on an area of London, you will then see a Streetside view in tandem with the map, which can also be hidden from view, and you can also see a list of local businesses in the area:
While the panorama is visually interesting, it is not as useful or compelling as the richer Silverlight experience. However, with the unavailability of Silverlight users will see a kind of panorama of the street in question. Below, compare Bing Maps images of Westminster Abbey in London. The first offers the panorama from “Bing Maps Classic;” the second shows what is possible with the Sliverlight version:
Moreover, Bing has opened up a special site for Streetside in the UK on which it not only describes what the product does, but also what it collects or not when it is collecting information. The site also has a specific page which displays when the Streetside cars will be driving around in what regions. Currently they are touring around the UK.
In September they will reach the Manchester / Merseyside area. You can also spot the cars in France and parts of Germany. Elsewhere in Europe, parts of France and Germany are currently being photographed too, with Paris scheduled for completion in November. And many parts of Germany are scheduled for completion this month, so we can expect to see at least one more country added imminently. By the end of the year most parts should be covered.