4 ms·
I worked at Microsoft 10 years ago and at the time Bing was still being pushed hard along with the new Windows phone. The lack of geospatial was a major painpo
by CSMastermind 4y ago
I worked at Microsoft 10 years ago and at the time Bing was still being pushed hard along with the new Windows phone.
The lack of geospatial was a major painpoint for both products but confusingly it's one they decided to not invest in.
I heard directly from the VP in charge of it why: open source maps were going to make Google maps irrelevant. We saw it with encarta and wikipedia he told me. Once the open source community gets its hands on something it becomes impossible to compete with.
A decade later Google maps still has no real competition.
- bendergarcia 4y agoSeems like that vp misunderstood the complexities to build and maintain the product and the utility people expect. Wikipedia is text of historical events. All it take is someone sitting at your computer to maintain it. Commuting has many components beyond get me from a to b. Those also have to be maintained, and actually require that people sometimes physically visit a place to confirm it still even exists. Not to mention all the photographic information necessary to support the product.