The search function is indeed appalling, but the "Bird's eye" view is awesome. It shows the location as photographed from satellite.

The feature is not available averywhere, though.

Wow, that surprises me. I've usually found Bing maps to be more up-to-date than Google's (especially around newer housing communities and such). But perhaps that is only here in the US?

Bing works better in my case, but google is at least suggesting the real address as possible solution

smnbss.wordpress.com/2011/01/07/google-vs-bing/

The difference is that MS has a guaranteed revenue stream from OS and office. They can plod along bleeding on the web for decades until they either hit it or not. They have absolutely no urgency in this game.

By the way, there is a guy who obssesses over these comparsons: http://www.41latitude.com though he's been quiet for a few months.

@smnbss: Odd, Google works great for me and I'm literally down the road from you...

http://i51.tinypic.com/2qjzp7l.png

I didn't even notice all of Bing's suggestions are way off-course as well...

@peter,

So because the OS department makes money, the guys who do Bing are lazy? Not likely.

The Kinect has been a runaway success so far (destroying Sony's Move at this point) and it innovative as all hell.

@Steve

I am not really bashing MS, we are a microsoft shop and make our living through them. My point is that we should expect this type of thing since the bing guys will be funded for another ten years even if they don't innovate "as all hell" but merely "in all moderation". The xbox took about 7-8 years to turn a profit, I think.

In any case it may only take one stumble by google in ad-space to "lose" to ms, since that is their life blood, and it is not locked in like the os-office scenario.

In my experience, everything good about 'Bing' works really well inside the USA, and is half arsed outside of it.

@Chad: You might be right; I'm in the UK, and in my experience, everything good about 'Bing' is:

This problem is because of copy right issues with the Israeli maps.

@peter,

Got to completely disagree here. Take a look at how quickly Balmer pulled the plug on the Kin since it wasn't performing. The guys on the Bing team have been tasked with "beating" Google at their own game, while they aren't even close yet, I doubt that they're just sitting back with their feet up taking it easy. Let's also not forget just how much money the boys in Redmond are paying to advertise Bing (from product placements in TV shows to expensive commercials during NFL football games), Balmer is not going to be content with just cruising a long for the next decade.

Google is incredibly good at what they do, so it's no crime that they haven't caught up yet.