When I had the chance to interview Mikko Ollila, senior product manager for Local Search at Bing, I was excited. Bing has done some nice things with their local search experience, and I wanted to learn a bit more about it.
Our discussion quickly shifted into a review of how Silverlight enables immersive experiences. The effect is really cool and worth a closer look if you have not already looked at it. Consider the process you go through when you get directions to someplace you have not been to before. With a few clicks in Bing Maps, you can go from seeing a place on a map, to getting directions, to seeing what the place looks like. In addition, you can move around the neighborhood around the place you searched on to see what is nearby.
Bing is also reaching out to developers to get them to create map applications based on Bing Maps. Partnerships also are playing a big role in the Bing strategy. Their recent announcement with Facebook is one example of this. Much more in the interview than this, so check it out!
