Blogs

Real-time bus schedules takes the uncertainty out of riding the bus. Sometimes a bus arrives early and you have to choose whether to chase after it or wait for the next one. Other times the bus arrives late and you have to wait at the bus stop, looking down the road wondering when the bus will appear. If the weather is bad or you’re alone at the bus stop in the dark, you need to know exactly when your bus is coming – at the...
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Over the next few weeks, there will be many holiday and New Year’s parties across the globe as we spend time with our families and welcome in 2011. I wanted to briefly re-visit a previously released Map App that is very timely for this time of the year – “Destination Maps”. When planning your party, this Map App lets you create custom mini-maps that you can save, print, or share via URL. These maps can either help people...
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Inefficient driving routes between multiple waypoints waste time, money, and wear on people’s patience. Beginning today, Bing has set out to help reduce the stress and wasted time caused by inefficient driving routes with the launch of the “RouteSavvy” app in Bing Maps. With this route optimization map app from OnTerra, people can enter up to 100 addresses into Bing Maps and receive the optimal route between their destinations...
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Bing Maps continues its commitment to empowering educators and students with the “Shout!” map app.  The Shout! program invites educators and students to take an active role in global environmental issues and connects experts in the field to share ideas and collaborate to solve environmental challenges. This map app displays the participating schools and the Smithsonian Tree Research Centers associated with the Shout Learning...
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The following is a guest post from Steve Milroy of OnTerra Systems, the developer for the Bing Education Map App, on the architecture and design of map app using Azure and Bing Maps. He also recently developed the DonorsChoose.org and Teach Here map apps. – Brian Recently the Bing Education Map was launched in the Bing Maps app gallery in conjunction with the Waiting for “Superman” movie from Participant Media. This map app integrates data...
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If you’re hungry and in need of some quality food, then Bing has you covered with the new Food Cart Finder. The Bing Food Cart Finder helps hungry foodies locate and learn about places to eat. The app initially covers only the Portland area and tracks over 250 food carts in the area. Bing is testing the appetites of Portland foodies before expanding the app’s service nationally. For those that live in Portland, you now have an easy...
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After the judges deliberated the winners were selected. This was so big, we did a video on MSDN’s Channel 9. The King of Bing Maps is…Ricky Brundritt, Taxi Fare Calculator The Grand Prize-winning Map App helps locals and travelers alike by estimating the total fare and showing the quickest route. The app covers major metro areas in the United States as well as 18 more cities worldwide. Brundritt won $1,000 for his creativity. Second...
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“Find a penny, pick it up and all day long you’ll have good luck.” If you believe this to be true, you may want to go buy some Lotto tickets today. The latest Bing Map App in the gallery, Coin Search, lets us explore Bing Maps in Streetside to find random coins throughout beautiful New York City. Four areas have been marked on the map; inside each of these areas there are five randomly distributed coins. Find all of the coins in...
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The latest addition to the Bing Map App Gallery helps Seattlites keep The Emerald City luster intact. The new app dubbed Seattle Issues helps Seattle residents and visitors learn about current civic issues in the city such as potholes, water main breaks, traffic signal problems, graffiti, and other issues that affect how people in Seattle experience the city. Note: This app is powered by SeeClickFix.com – a website encouraging...
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OpenStreetMap (OSM) is the newest layer for Bing Maps and the newest Bing Map App in the gallery. The map app, dubbed simply, "OpenStreetMap" 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...
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