Bing Streetside – Microsoft’s concept of Google Street View

Bing Maps Beta, which launched yesterday Wednesday, is very similar to Google Maps, but has a few innovative features. Among them, Bing Streetside, Microsoft’s vision of popular Google Maps Street View, that allow the user to undetake a virtual walkthrough in the streets with a 360 degree landscape of the location landmarks.

Bing Maps Streetside Feature

A unique Bing Streetside’s “light speed” option also enables the user to zoom in/out on specific locations. Further, the “Bird’s Eye” option provides the user with an aerial view of the chosen location. Bing Streetside and aerial view combine Bing’s existing 3D maps in Virtual Earth with Silverlight technology and Microsoft’s Live Labs’ Photosynth for Deep Zoom, gathering together aerial and street photos, providing smart transitions moving you along a street from a map to a photo view in a game-like 3D view.