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  • Bing Bird's Eye Maps deteriorating?

    Anyone else notice the "New Version" is slow, and often produces garbled images? I have reported this to Bing of course, but curious if others have noticed the deterioration.

  • #2
    Hmm, I just tried viewing Marcy and can't say it behaved badly. However, I did notice a delay when toggling between Aerial and Bird's Eye views. Sometimes it seemed like I needed to change the zoom level to coax the transition between the two views.
    Looking for views!

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    • #3
      Another hmmm,

      I mostly use Bing to see various waterways and potential paddling routes.
      Different compass points of view often have different levels of resolution, and sometimes are clearly photos from different seasons.

      Even so, the images are pretty darn good.
      Compare this Bing bird's eye image to my photo from a similar perspective.

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      • #4
        Yeah Bing is great and I can show lots of examples of cool images. But some things I used to be able to look at are now mangled in the "new Version."

        So I may or may not be able to show an example. (Because I have not been able to post ANY images on this site, regardless of size or file type, for some time.) (Edit: Hey, looks like it worked!)

        But I have tried to attach an image from the "new version" of bird's eye, looking at the ridge on the way from Blueberry to Porter. This image would render perfectly in the "previous version", but is completely mangled in the "new version." (All caches cleared, same results in IE and Chrome.)
        Attached Files

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        • #5
          So the performance of the "upgraded" Bing Birds Eye view has continued to DEgrade to the point where it is almost unusable:

          >view simply goes blank when trying to rotate; have to back all the way out, rotate, and then zoom in again.
          >The old "birdseye satellite data is all gone. The new "birdseye" view is just a "tilted" google overhead shot.
          >Site operates extremely slowly, and images are mangled.

          This is the same in Chrome or IE. Not a problem on my end, I have great high speed internet, caches are always clear, and every other site works great.

          So I'm giving up on Bing. Can anyone suggest another site that can provide imagery like the old (now unavailable) Birdseye View?

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          • #6
            @tcd

            If your PC is running Windows 10, have you tried the Maps app?

            If you select Aerial view and 3D mode, you'll get the ability to pan/zoom/rotate the view just like in Google Earth (GE). The rendering is very good and faster than GE on my PC. It isn't as feature-rich as GE but it's great for "flying over" and exploring the terrain.
            Attached Files
            Looking for views!

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            • #7
              Thanks, Taras.

              I've stayed with Windows 7. 7 is solid and businesslike. 10 ha a cludgy cellphone look and poor performance.

              But I may try Google Earth - what are the best options to select there?

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              • #8
                FWIW, I have Win10 running on two computers and it works flawlessly. One of them is a ten-year old laptop PC that originally came with Vista. I joined the Windows Insider program and got a free upgrade for it (officially the free Win 10 upgrade was only for Win 7 and up). The laptop runs better than ever (on a 10 year-old Core Duo with 4Gb RAM). The other PC is a late-model all-in-one that originally ran Win 8.1. It runs just fine with Win 10. All my old apps run on it with any hiccups including a discontinued one that is over ten years old. I updated my father's laptop before the free upgrade offer expired. It runs fine as well.

                As for aesthetics, most operating systems have moved away from the skeuomorphic look favored in the past. Apple's iOS moved to the "flat look" in version 7. Google's Android switched to Material Design in version 5. Windows 10 continues with the Metro/Modern design language started in Windows 8. Even many flavors of desktop Linux have adopted a more streamlined appearance.

                Google discontinued updates for the PC version of Google Earth. It's still available but won't receive enhancements. They incorporated some of GE's features into Google Maps but it isn't quite the same thing.
                Last edited by Trail Boss; 03-29-2017, 10:30 PM.
                Looking for views!

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                • #9
                  Bumping this thread.

                  Bing has now taken down the Bird's Eye view completely for our area - it's gone, unavailable. I knew this was coming as it has been deteriorating over the last year or so.

                  Now, according to Bing:

                  "New and crisp Bird's Eye imagery is available in many metropolitan areas.
                  Bird's Eye may not be available in your area as outdated imagery is no longer available."

                  I checked. The Bird's Eye is unavailable in Albany. It is available in Central Manhattan. (So I guess they mean REALLY metropolitan areas.) The "new and crisp" imagery does not look any different from the old Bird's Eye imagery.

                  And Bird's Eye is entirely unavailable anywhere in the Adirondacks. I am not sure how images of a wild area become "outdated" and why they are "no longer available."

                  So again, they have been gradually deteriorating this for some time, and now it has been taken down completely, accompanied by some kind of very questionable cover story. Don't know what really happened, but this resource is gone.

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by TCD View Post
                    Bumping this thread.


                    I checked. The Bird's Eye is unavailable in Albany. It is available in Central Manhattan. (So I guess they mean REALLY metropolitan areas.) The "new and crisp" imagery does not look any different from the old Bird's Eye imagery.

                    And Bird's Eye is entirely unavailable anywhere in the Adirondacks. I am not sure how images of a wild area become "outdated" and why they are "no longer available."
                    big part of it is their advertisement for local businesses,
                    all those indicators for starbucks, wendys, etc.. are paid for
                    there are no sponsors/advertisers in rural areas so not worth promoting to them

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                    • #11
                      It's too bad. It was a very useful tool for studying the woods prior to a trip.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        And Google Earth is an entirely different resource. As Nessmuk demonstrated over on the other forum, Google Earth works great when you want to look straight down at flat things that can easily be seen from directly above. But Google Earth does not have the actual angled photo database. That was only available on Bing.

                        But Colden46, maybe you could weigh in here:

                        I use the wonderful "Top Map Browser" at the AdirondackPark.net site, and it works well. Of course the satellite photos are mostly the Google "straight down" photos. But in some locations, when you zoom in, the view switches to the angled, rotatable "Birds Eye" view. (A good place to see this is at Hoover Dam.)

                        Interestingly, on Bing's own site, the Birds Eye view is NOT available at Hoover Dam. But it IS available on the topo map browser.

                        So Colden46, somehow your topo map software is tapping into the old "Birds Eye" data at some locations. Do you know how it's doing this? Is it possible we might be able to recover access to this data base in the Adirondacks?

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