While Bing has attempted a variety of features and services to combat the almighty(?) Google, a few have really stuck. The Bing shopping features, the travel-related niche searches, and Bing Maps have been among the more popular features drawing users to Microsoft’s search engine. Continuing to levy these strengths, Bing Maps has recently been re-worked for more intuitive navigation and an automatic “center on me” feature.
The Revamped Interface
Previously, users who browsed through Bing Maps would need to go on a bit of a hunt to find interface buttons, including which view they preferred, what layers they wanted to see, what apps they wanted to use, and so forth. Spread across the bottom-left, bottom-right, and centered above the map, these controls often got users lost. The new version of the interface compiles all the tools and features in a single bar across the top.
This top bar includes plain-English labels and drop-downs, making the navigation both easy and clean. The new interface, combined with the recent choice to free Bing Maps from Silverlight (the service now runs in any environment capable of HTML 5), make this service far more accessible.
“Center on Me”
Bing Maps allows users to have the map for a region automatically center on them by pushing a single button. The conditions are 1) you must allow Bing Maps to see what your current location is (obviously) and 2) you have to be using a browser that’s compatible with the W3C Geolocation API (which includes all modern browsers).The pin icon that lets you automatically center ht map can be clicked a second time to disable the feature, and Bing advises that you’ll get the most accurate results when WiFi is enabled.
[Sources include: The Bing Blog]
