Silverlight Bing Maps Ready for Primetime

Posted 01/20/2010 at 6:08am | by Paul Lilly

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Microsoft's Bing Maps Silverlight version is growing up fast, so much so that Microsoft is taking it out of beta, the Redmond outfit announced this week.

Not everyone will see the changes right away, and instead, Microsoft is planning a slow rollout. Within a few weeks, everyone in the U.S. should see the Silverlight maps by default. In the meantime, the AJAX site will still work, and users will be able to toggle between the two versions.

This is a pretty big step for Bing, one which some would argue puts the search decision engine ahead of Google in the maps arena. Because it's powered by Silverlight, it's a more robust experience than Google Maps, allowing users to seamlessly switch between maps, satellite images, and detailed aerial photos. But is it a Google Maps killer?

Not quite. Google Maps still has some features that Bing doesn't, like better local searches with Place Pages. And while Silverlight is what gives Bing Maps an edge, it also means installing a plug-in that you might not have otherwise wanted.