Bing Maps Adds OpenStreetMap

OpenStreetMap (OSM) is the newest addition for Bing Maps. The "Bing Map web Experience" loads OSM maps as a new map style option. OpenStreetMap follows a similar concept as Wikipedia, but for maps and other geographic facts (despite its name, it’s by no means only limited to streets and roads). A community of map lovers and developers gather location data across the globe from a variety of sources such as recordings from GPS devices, from free satellite imagery or simply from knowing an area very well, for example because they live there. This information then gets uploaded to OpenStreetMap’s central database from where it can be further modified, corrected and enriched by anyone who notices missing facts or errors about the area.

Bing Maps showing data from OSM
Attribution for Open Street Maps in Bing.com/Maps

Users can still perform the same searches atop of the OSM map as it is integrated into the full Bing Maps experience. Users will find the OSM map attribution is independent of map types so if you switch to Bird’s Eye or some other native Bing map types, you can easily return to the original map style. 

We’ve taken the OSM data as is and are pumping it through our Windows Azure CDN. This means, Bing Maps data is coming down at screaming fast speeds from the massive Windows Azure infrastructure built out to support globally distributed applications… perfectly suited for products like Bing Maps.

And, now, you too can get all the benefits right in Bing Maps!