Bing Maps API Improves Mapping Imagery

By Barry Schwartz

Published: July 29, 2014 at 9:08 am

Bing announced on the Bing Maps Developer blog that they have rolled out better rendering and styling improvements to their map imagery.

They added a new gradient coloring for land areas that adjusts the brightness to your zoom level. The new gradient helps improve the contrast, making streets and other features more visible, says Microsoft. Here are before and after shots.

Before:

2816.BingMapsStyling-GradientColorBefore.png-331x266

After:

7183.BingMapsStyling-GradientLandColorAfter.png-299x269

They have also added more styling to help differentiate park trails and pathways from roads. Here are before and after shots.

Before:

5164.BingMapsStyling-trails_before.png-550x0

After:

3301.BingMapsStyling-trails_after.png-550x0

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Application programming interface Bing Maps Cartography Data and information visualization Microsoft Microsoft Bing

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About the author

Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz is a technologist and a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics.

In 2019, Barry was awarded the Outstanding Community Services Award from Search Engine Land, in 2018 he was awarded the US Search Awards the "US Search Personality Of The Year," you can learn more over here and in 2023 he was listed as a top 50 most influential PPCer by Marketing O'Clock.

Barry can be followed on X here and you can learn more about Barry Schwartz over here or on his personal site.