Bing Maps: Helping you find the middle of nowhere whether you want it or not

Bing was supposed to be the new black. Bing + Yahoo! search deal + Farecast integration + new mapping was supposed to = a revolution in search engines for Microsoft (excuse me.. not a search engine.. a discovery engine). For that all to work, the mapping has to work. Especially in travel. When people search for information on locations they need to be given very accurate mapping information on where the location is..well...located.

I have been house hunting recently and "accidentally" used an integrated Bing Maps feature on Internet Explorer. It failed miserably...in an entertaining way.

Here are the screen shots that tell the story. Shot 1 - the house in 138 Underwood St Padding (suburb of Sydney just next to downtown business region) that I was looking at and me highlighting the address and selecting map with Live Search/Bing. Shot 2 - the result. No only is the mapping result nowhere near Paddington, it is some 4,000 kilometres away on an Aboriginal reserve in the North West corner of Australia. In other words...somewhere near the middle of nowhere (with all due respect to the people who live there).

Shot 1 - me doing the search



Shot 2 - the result. We now know where the middle of nowhere actually is.
Described by Bing as "138, Aboriginal Land, Western Australia". Other than the number 138 there is nothing in common with the address I was searching for


Let me put shot 2 into perspective with Shot 3 showing how far away this is from the actual location of Underwood St Paddington

Shot 3 - how far apart the locations are


Think this is a one off? I tried the same for a property in another part of Underwood st Paddington (this time number 14 not number 138) Shot 4 is the result. At least this time in Sydney but still some 30-40kms away and under than the number 14 - nothing in common with what I searched.

Shot 4 - closer but still not close enough
Showing 14 Underwood st Paddington as 14 Bilgola St Newport


If Bing wants any chance at fighting Google, Kayak or the OTAs in travel search they will have to do dramatically better than this in the mapping area.

Kayak is not that flattered by Bing imitation (Wired Mag)

Quick post for the BOOT recommended read of the week. Wired is reporting that Kayak sent Microsoft a "legal letter" along the lines of accusing Microsoft's Bing Travel of copying Kayak's look and feel and therefore misleading Kayak customers. No more details than that. Anyone out there is the Michael Jackson obsessed InterWebs know any more?

Full Article "Kayak to Bing: Stop Copying Us!"

hat tip to whodeani where I saw the story first

First bit of Bing Travel for the BOOT - but makes no sense

I am a long way behind on doing any analysis or commentary on Microsoft's launch of Bing search platform.

But I did receive my first piece of traffic referral from the Bingers. Receiving traffic form a search engine is not a story in itself, but there is a story here because the traffic makes not make any sense. The search term that sent me the traffic was "qantasbooking.com.au" and the Bing page with those results has only one free link on it and no reference to me anywhere. I don't understand. Also look at the paid search on the right hand side. Does this mean Bing is selling remnant inventory or allowing for bidding on any term. Image below

If you are looking for some Bing travel analysis check out some of the following

Siew Hoon with Bing. Pong or Bang?
Bishop Cook with Farecast team looks to take Bing travel to new heights
Alex Bainbridge with Microsoft Bing and the travel website onion