The World According to Bing

The world as we know it has collapsed into custom-sized computer screens with Mercator-projected maps, satellite images, aerial photos, and graphics showing us where everything is, what every location looks like, and why we would want to go there. Raster map images are the staple of every location platform, but researchers are creating new types of visualizations to satiate the appetites of users who want more. A good example of this cutting edge of location technology is Bing Maps. Bing Maps consists of 2 Pbytes of information stored across Microsoft's cloud and multiple interfaces into the data. Onto this platform, Microsoft is adding layers of data in both 2D and 3D perspectives. The original version of Bing Maps is based on Ajax. To complement that version, Bing Maps launched Silverlight. Silverlight provides a rich, immersive, 3D-like experience while using a widely accepted browser plug-in similar to Adobe's Flash.