Bing announced they have relaunched the Bing Business Portal under a new name, "Bing Places For Business." The change doesn't currently do much with your listings, outside of move the location of where you manage your business Bing Maps listing to bing.com/places. It also removes some features that were available in Bing Business Portal including: Ability to creating deals Features to add coupons Print QR codes Create your own mobile sites Ability to create and print collateral Bing did say that this is the first step in their "effort to provide you with all the tools you need [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local

With the announcement of Facebook Home, Facebook has pushed the accelerator on its local mobile strategy, which was already in high gear, thanks to Facebook Local Search and its big brother, Facebook Graph Search. By the end of 2013, I expect the social media giant to further strengthen its hold as the #2 local search app; so, it might behoove local marketers to get a handle on exactly how their businesses are showing up in Facebook these days. There are numerous ways that local business data makes it into Facebook, including: "Link" buttons on local business sites "Share on Facebook" [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Facebook | Facebook: Facebook Search | Facebook: SEO | Local Search | Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local

Bing Maps has announced a series of updates to its high-resolution imagery, including expanded coverage, better mapping of ocean floors, cloud filtering and more. The prime features that Bing is touting involve what it calls "top of the world" imagery -- those hi-res, top-down images. Improvements there include: Cloud cover filtering: Bing processes its base satellite imagery and reduces cloud cover in areas where views are often blocked by persistent cloud cover. Bing's example photos of Oahu show how that works: Another improvement involves the addition of ocean topography from [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local | Top News

People have strongly criticized Google for confusing local marketers by having two places to update and enhance local business information (Google Places, Google+ Local Pages). But there's also something confusing about what Microsoft appears to be doing in local listings management. The company appeared to be trying to establish the Bing Business Portal as the definitive place to claim, correct or enhance local business information on Bing. But Microsoft's relationship with Nokia has complicated things. Nokia has a comparable local listings on-boarding mechanism called "Nokia Prim [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local | Microsoft: Business Issues | Top News

Globally there are arguably four main digital mapping competitors: Google, Apple, Microsoft and Nokia. Google is the clear leader. However Nokia is making a renewed bid to challenge Google's mapping supremacy with a rebranded platform "Here," new APIs, a Google Street View-like offering, augmented reality and new apps for third party smartphone operating systems. Apple is busy trying to fix its recently launched maps and seems to be making some progress. Bing, after aggressively investing in maps for several years, now seems to be outsourcing key parts of its mapping infrastructure to Nokia [...]

Related Topics: Apple: Maps | Channel: Mobile | Google: Maps & Local | Google: Mobile | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local | Search Engines: Maps & Local Search Engines | Top News

It's a marketing tactic that's about as old as time itself: When a competitor stumbles, you turn it into opportunity for self-promotion. That's certainly been the case since the Apple Maps app stumbled out of the gate a week ago on iOS 6. Bing is the latest competitor to call for attention. The company published a new blog post today touting its Bing App for iOS -- not because it has any new features, but because "you may be holding a brand new smartphone and wondering which apps have the essential search and mapping functionality you need." Bing wants everyone to know that its existi [...]

Related Topics: Apple: Maps | Channel: Mobile | Features: Analysis | Foursquare | Google: Maps & Local | Google: Mobile | Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local | Microsoft: Bing Mobile | Top News

With the launch of the iPhone 5, perhaps the most eagerly awaited electronics launch ever, speculation has been rampant on the impact it'll have on the mobile phone market, on Apple's future as an innovator post-Steve Jobs, and on the coolness of the next gadget to get dropped into your pocket. But from a mobile search perspective, iPhone 5 is pretty much more of the same. A more effective version of Siri will be standard in the new phone's iOS 6 - but that was a game changer from the iPhone 4s. iPhone 5 has certainly caused a sales storm, pushing more smartphones into more pockets. B [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local | Microsoft: Bing Mobile | Microsoft: Mobile | Mobile Search | Search Ads: Mobile Search | Search Engines: Mobile Search Engines | Search Marketing: Mobile | SEO: Mobile Search

Ubergizmo is reporting that Bing (not Google) will be the default search engine for the Amazon browser on the new Kindle tablets.  (We were able to confirm this with Microsoft directly earlier this evening.) The original Kindle Fire used Google. Amazon is likely to sell several million of these new devices given their aggressive pricing (partly subsidized by ads). If so, that could provide a boost to Bing, especially in a mobile/quasi-mobile context. There are several alternative browsers currently available for Kindle Fire/HD including Opera, Maxthon and Dolphin. I would anticipate tha [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Android | Google: Antitrust | Google: Maps & Local | Google: Mobile | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local | Microsoft: Bing Mobile | Top News

Back when Bing Maps was called Microsoft Virtual Earth (2006) the company bought Vexcel, a US Defense Department contractor that specialized in high resolution aerial photography and automated 3D image rendering. That acquisition became the basis of Bing Maps' subsequent ambitious aerial imagery and 3D mapping efforts. Microsoft then improved upon the camera that Vexcel had developed. In 2010 Microsoft embarked on what it calls its Global Ortho (GO) project. For the past two years Bing has been "collecting every square inch of the Continental United States and Western Europe at 30cm resolut [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local | Microsoft: Bing Mobile

Windows 8 is almost ready to hit the market. When it does it appears that it will deliver a new more "immersive" search experience, via Bing. In the video at the bottom of this page, Microsoft's Stefan Weitz demonstrates that new experience on a Microsoft Windows 8 tablet (presumably a Surface device). Windows 8 Bing appears to be very fast and it's highly visual, one of the most appealing aspects of the Bing experience. From my vicarious perusal of the materials the most compelling new feature appears to be what Microsoft/Bing is calling "snap." Initially, search results appear in a gri [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local | Microsoft: Bing Mobile | Microsoft: Bing News Search

Microsoft announced today, that in conjunction with Nokia, Bing has added "more than 2,700 venue maps" in North America, Europe and Asia. You can access them online at Bing.com/maps ("explore venue maps"). In the US and UK markets venue (indoor) maps are also available on Windows Phones and through the Bing app for the iPhone. The following are the categories of venue maps on Bing (numbers indicate coverage in the US): Airports (85) Amusement Parks (1) Casinos (25) Community Centers (1) Convention Centers (2) Hotels (2) Malls (1370) Museums (1) [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Google: Maps & Local | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local | Microsoft: Outside US | Microsoft: Partnerships

As the "mapping wars" heat up Microsoft is introducing a huge new body of satellite imagery into Bing Maps. It's not clear whether any of this will extend to mobile given the apparent substitution of Nokia Maps for Bing in Windows Phone 8. The new imagery covers vast amounts of land on almost every continent. According to the Bing blog post, "The total area covered in this data release is nearly 38 million square kilometers." The company says that this single update constitutes more data (165 terabytes) than all the previous releases combined (129 terabytes). Bing also said that its [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local

We're starting to see what Apple Maps will look like as well as the features it will contain, among them check-ins on Yelp. At the same time it's becoming clear how important Yelp now is in the world of local and Local SEO through its Apple relationship. Yelp has always been important. However the site is now second only to Google in terms of its importance -- if not its equal. Yelp's Huge New Visibility On the iPhone 4S Yelp provided reviews for nearby local businesses found by Siri, in a generally mediocre local search experience. Though Yelp was the source of the content (or some of the c [...]

Related Topics: Apple: Maps | Channel: Local | Features: Analysis | Google: Maps & Local | Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local | Yelp

Slowly Bing is handing over more of its mapping "back end" functions to Nokia, as part of the deal that brought the two together for the Lumia-Windows Phone partnership. Yesterday Microsoft announced that in 24 countries, including the US and UK, Nokia (Navteq) will be delivering traffic data to Bing Maps. The company also said that it would start using Nokia’s geocoding services in several (unnamed) countries to improve directions. In May last year I wrote Bing Maps To Be Powered (Replaced) By Nokia? A source argued to me that over time Nokia would gradually replace most of the [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Google: Maps & Local | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local | Search Engines: Maps & Local Search Engines

Analyst firm BIA/Kelsey has projected that by 2015 there will be more local searches coming from smartphones than PCs  in the US. It's a bold prediction and one that has logical merit: smartphone search volumes are growing faster than search on the PC. While local search is at least 20 percent of total queries on the PC (per Google) it's at least 40 percent of smartphone queries, also according to Google. Mobile vs. PC Local Search Volumes (BIA/Kelsey Forecast) Source: BIA/Kelsey (2012) In some categories such as restaurants and travel, mobile searches represent 15 - 20 percent [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Maps & Local | Google: Mobile | Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local | Microsoft: Bing Mobile | Stats: comScore | Stats: Size

Microsoft has introduced a number of improvements to Bing Maps, chief among which is making "venue maps" more obvious. Microsoft says there are roughly 900 venue/interior maps on Bing focused primarily on "malls, airports, casinos and shopping districts." Google has a similar initiative but it's focused on Google Maps for Android for the time being. Below is a comparison of Bing's Mall of America interior map and Google Map's version of the same site (the Android version offers the interior the PC version does not): Clearly the Bing experience above is more desirable. In New York [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Google: Maps & Local | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local

The Bing Maps Blog announced several enhancements to Bing Maps. In summary, the changes include: A refresh to the Pushpin buttons and Popup menu Transit symbols and icons were improved Added sharing options to transit directions Ability to now drag to modify your route The explore venue maps option is easier to find The most visible change is the first, the pushbuttons and popup menu changes. The blue pushpins are standard search results in the maps, the orange pushpins are results you saved to your maps. When you hover your mouse over a pushpin, you see the name of the loc [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local

Microsoft's Photosynth iOS app, which has been available to US users for almost a year, is now available worldwide and includes a couple updates. In its blog post today, Microsoft says the app has passed six million downloads since its US-only launch last April. The app is now in version 1.1.3 and is available to iOS users around the world. It includes performance tweaks specifically for iOS5 users and adds Twitter sharing, too. Previously, photo panoramas could be shared on Bing Maps and Facebook. If you're not familiar with Photosynth, it's an underrated product that makes it almos [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local | Microsoft: Photosynth

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, the folks at Bing Local are paying Google a very nice compliment with a new display for local search results that looks quite a bit like what Google often shows. As first spotted by BrightLocal.com, Bing's new local search results no longer consistently show a "pack" of businesses listings and map at the top of the page, above all of the regular organic links. Instead, with the new display, Bing shows a mix of local results: The "pack" of listings may appear anywhere in the search results, not just at the top of the page. The map appears [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local | Microsoft: Bing User Interface | Top News

Microsoft and Nokia announced the fruit of their recent mapping collaboration today. Each company has a blog post describing what's changed and improved (Bing, Nokia). The effort comes out of the companies' strategic partnership in mobile. As part of that arrangement Microsoft is relying heavily on the Nokia-Navteq mapping and data infrastructure. Nokia for its part has made Ovi Maps much more Bing-like in appearance. Essentially the UI has been simplified, colors have been muted and there's an improved "visual hierarchy" at each level of zoom. It's challenging for me to specifically tell w [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Maps & Local | Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local | Microsoft: Bing Mobile | Search Engines: Maps & Local Search Engines | Search Engines: Mobile Search Engines | Yahoo: Maps & Local