Earthware Blog

At the inaugural Bing Maps User group in the UK, Jim Lynn from the BBC was invited to present on a project that he led at the BBC to explore how Bing Maps Silverlight can be used.  I am not a techie but found this a fascinating exploration into how Silverlight is transforming the online mapping experience.  As a synopsis, Jim spent nearly twelve months on different aspects of this project.  First, he created and loaded Ordnance Survey map tiles into Bing Maps Silverlight to enable deep zoom Ordnance Survey mapping. He then explored how you can integrate geographical based data and information into the maps using examples such as David Dimbleby’s “How We Built Britain” showing the video playing as the marker moves along a path on the map as the video shows him driving down a road.

Jim also separated the Ordnance Survey names layer from the map layer to enable the map to be rotated whilst the names remain horizontal on the page (no mean feat) and embedded deep zoom photographs at their correct geographical locations which cluster to avoid overlapping as you change zoom levels. These embedded photographs can also be ‘flipped over’ to reveal information about the place on the back. He also showed (for a small part of Britain) how the BBC archive can be displayed on a Bing Map.

If you want to talk about how your data/information/business can be brought to life using Bing Maps Silverlight, please contact Earthware for a chat.

We often get asked by our clients, and prospective clients, what areas of the UK are covered by Bird’s Eye imagery. Whilst we have a long list of place names this isn’t always helpful as what you really want is to see is the UK Bird’s Eye coverage plotted on a map.

Well we found one the other day that Microsoft have done and here it is (areas shaded yellow have Bird’s Eye):

The two other questions that we often get asked are “Will our area have Bird’s Eye View imagery soon?” or “Will new imagery be released in our area?”. As the imagery is provided by BLOM pictometry (I was lucky enough to have a tour of the hanger and see the planes and the cameras they use – very cool!) and where and when routes are flown depends on a number of often uncontrollable factors, I am not even sure that Microsoft know the answer to this. However, if you want to keep up to date then please see the monthly releases in the Bing Maps World Tour, a bespoke mapping solution which Earthware created for Microsoft, which clearly displays the details of all Microsoft’s monthly imagery releases (aerial imagery and Birds Eye views).

For the fourth blog post in our series comparing the two leading AJAX mapping APIs we are looking at what support is available for each API both officially by the respective companies and unofficially from the developer community. Again we are highlighting significant differences between the APIs using green highlighting.

UPDATES: We have added some extra details on support from feedback we have received

Official Developer Support

Obviously one of the most important aspects to compare when choosing any API is how well it is documented and the quality and availability of examples. There is nothing worse than trying to wade through an API playing “guess what this bit does” so having well written, up to date documentation and examples is key to any developers success.

Google Maps

• Official documentation and reference available for both version 2 and 3 APIs
  (see http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/)
• Official example code for both version 2 and 3 APIs with over 46 examples
  (see http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/examples/index.html)
• For a “code playground” allowing you to edit the examples for yourself and get a real feel of what using the API is like
  (see http://code.google.com/apis/ajax/playground/?exp=maps#map_simple)
• Case studies available (http://maps.google.com/help/maps/casestudies/)
• Demo gallery of third party examples available
  (http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/demogallery.html)
• A list of known issues including official responses and ability to add issues
  (see http://code.google.com/p/gmaps-api-issues/issues/list)
• A change log showing recent code updates
  (see http://code.google.com/p/gmaps-api-issues/wiki/JavascriptMapsAPIChangelog)
• An official blog updating you with the latest news and releases
  (see http://googlegeodevelopers.blogspot.com/)
• There are official “Google developer days” in a few places worldwide every year that have some sessions on Google maps and the large Google IO conference in San Francisco every year. We are not aware of any Google Maps specific events or official webcasts other than the already mentioned events.
• If you are a commercial user there is a dedicated support website for answering your issues directly with response within 24 business hours, however “Google reserves the sole right to determine whether to respond to all other support issues, such as implementation assistance, underlying errors in the map data, and cases where address locations are incorrect or missing.” so you may not even get a response to some issues. Support only processes support requests made through the support website during hours of operation: 9AM-6PM Pacific Time Mon-Fri (9 hours).

Google has the basic documentation covered and a few nice things that make it unique like the change log and issues log. One nice difference is that almost all of Google’s official support information collected together on one website. Google also have a few events for developers but don’t appear them more than once a year and there doesn’t appear to be any sort of partner support network. The support however does concern us a little in that you may not get any response to your issues, we do not know how this actually works in reality.

Bing Maps

• Official documentation and reference, also available as offline help file
  (see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb429619.aspx)
• Official example code
  (see http://www.microsoft.com/maps/isdk/ajax/)
• Case studies available
  (see http://www.microsoft.com/maps/gallery/)
• Demo of third party examples available
  (see http://www.microsoft.com/maps/gallery/)
• An official blog updating you with the latest news and releases
  (see http://www.bing.com/community/blogs/maps/)
• Official imagery release information application (to be completely open it was created by Earthware for Microsoft) see http://bingmapsupdates.cloudapp.net/
• There are official events 2-3 times a year for developers and partners as well as webcasts around once a month keeping partners up to date
  
• There is a well established Bing Maps partner network worldwide which is part of the larger Microsoft partner program. Selected partners are involved in quarterly webcasts with the Bing Maps team to discuss issues and upcoming releases.
• If you are a commercial user there are dedicated support teams worldwide for answering your issues directly, all support enquiries of any nature will be responded to (confirmed with Microsoft 21/01/10). Bing Maps paid customers have access to email and phone support 8AM-9PM Eastern Time, Mon-Fri (13 hours) – the entire USA business day, coast to coast; for service outages, they have access to 24/7 telephone support with 1-hour callback outside of normal business hours. The European support runs from 8am to 4pm GMT

Bing again has the basic covered well, and an unique imagery release information application but it is missing a regular change log and there is no official issues log. One area Bing Maps stands out in is the events and partner network which is something Google need to work on to help support more than just developers.

Developer Community

Often official support for a product is great, but a true community built around an API can make all the difference.

Google Maps

• Has a well used forum / group for posting and answering questions. The majority of support is offered by other developers but there are some official announcements by Google employees
  (see http://groups.google.com/group/google-maps-api/)
• Has a large number of open source projects adding functionality to the core mapping, most notably the Gmaps utility library which is officially recommended by Google over code actual offered by the core Google maps v2 API.
  
• There have been at least 10 books published specifically about Google Maps
  
• Google maps has a much larger presence in the general web community with a large number of articles, blog posts and tutorials for various aspects and uses of Google maps

Google has a large user community due to its free use popularity with a lot of books to choose from, however be careful as books on APIs become old very fast.

Bing Maps

• Has a well used forum for posting and answering questions. The vast majority of support is offered by other developers and very occasionally by the Bing Maps team.
• Has a smaller number of open source projects mostly focusing around asp.net / silverlight / wpf controls or using Bing Maps in interesting ways rather than adding functionality to the core mapping product (with the notable exceptions of vejs and the virtual earth toolkit)
  
• Bing maps now has at least one dedicated user group (co-founded by Earthware’s Brian Norman)
  
• We are only aware of one soon to be published book about Bing Maps by Nicolas Boonaert which is in French

Bing Maps has a smaller but just as dedicated user community. It’s Earthware’s opinion that there may be less open source projects adding to the core functionality (like Google’s GMaps Utility Library) because Bing Maps has a lot more of these kind of utilities already included in its core mapping API (hence its larger file size).

Conclusions

Both Google Maps and Bing Maps have the basic developer documentation and support sorted, although we find Bing Maps documentation a little easier to read and navigate but that’s only a personal preference.

Google Maps stands out in its development openness by having an issues log and updates log. Bing Maps however really shines when it comes to official partner communication and official events. Also it’s interesting to see Google recommending the use of open source projects rather than using some aspects of the core mapping API.

Finally Google Maps undoubtedly has a larger user community with more articles, books and open source projects than Bing. We can see this difference is starting to balance out a little since Bing Maps rebranded from Virtual Earth and with the new similar free licensing agreement introduced last month.

For the third blog post in our series comparing Google Maps and Bing Maps we are focusing on the size of download users require to use these platforms and the speed which the core code and map imagery to delivered.

Download size

Both mapping platforms use a large amount of javascript and css that is required to get the actual base mapping working before the user even gets to the code you as a developer write for your application. Below you can see a comparison of the download size in kb (when gzipped) required for each platform, slightly complicated by the fact Google Maps currently have two current APIs ver 2 and ver 3 (as ver 3 still has features missing that are available in ver 2).

As you can see Bing Map’s javascript is considerably larger. This is, in our opinion, due to Bing Maps having a lot more of its features built into the main javascript file (e.g. client side clustering, drag-zoom, labelled markers, speed optimized marker addition) rather than in optional community based js files like Google’s GMap Utility Library.

We have deliberately not compared (or included in our calculations above) the image tiles used to show the actual maps in both api’s as both use the same formats for these and they are entirely dependent on the imagery at each location.

Delivery speeds

As the vast majority of data used in your mapping applications is the image tiles used to create the map the speed which these image files are delivered to your users worldwide is arguably more important than the initial javascript download size. For example one 256×256 pixel square road map tile is typically ~20kb so these very quickly become the biggest data download for your application.

Bing Maps have openly discussed their recent implementation of a Content Delivery Network (CDN) for Bing Maps which means all the Bing Maps files are delivered by a network of servers worldwide and will be delivered by the server closest to your users therefore increasing the delivery speeds. We cannot find any official word from Google about whether Google Maps is doing the same but we would be surprised if they are not.

Help us test delivery speeds

As we promised to try and use objective measurements when comparing mapping API’s we need your help to test delivery speeds all over the world. If you can add your location and the speed of delivery you get from both Google Maps and Bing Maps (see how to do this below) to the comments on this article we will update the article and add the results for everyone to see. Obviously the delivery speed will vary on your connection speed but we will still be able to compare the difference between loading a Google Maps tile and loading a Bing Maps tile on the same connection.

How to test delivery speeds

To take part in this experiment you will need to download Firefox and the Firebug plug-in. Follow the steps below and post your location and results in the comments below.

1. Open a new browser tab and then open firebug (tools->firebug->open firebug)
2. Click on the “Net” tab in firebug
3. Load the following url in the tab:
   http://mt1.google.com/vt/v=ap.115&x=233&y=154&z=8
4. You should see a graph like the one below showing you the filesize (16kb) and how long it took to load (191ms in our case).

   As suggested by readers in the comments we recommend you take the average time taken of at least three tests, for each test ensure you hold down the SHIFT key and click Firefox’s refresh button so that it does not read the tile from the browser cache (ensure firebug does not say 16kb from cache).
   

   

5. Now to get the download speed in kb/s simply divide the filesize (16kb) by the download time then multiple by 1000, giving in our example a download speed of: (16 / 191) * 1000 = 83.7 kb/s
   
6. Now repeat for this Bing url:
   http://ecn.t3.tiles.virtualearth.net/tiles/r0231113.png?g=392
   
7. Finally post your results and location below.

Conclusions

We will have to wait until we have a number of results in from around the world until we can draw some useful conclusions to this blog post. Until then we can say if initial filesize is really important to your users (for example those on mobile connections) then you may wish to look at the Google Maps ver 3, however initial file size is far from the whole picture so it would be best to wait to see the results of the delivery speed tests before reading much more into this.

For our blog series on comparing the two mapping developer API’s we thought we should start with one of the most important aspects, licensing. This is going to be tricky to compare as we are not allowed to publish the exact commercial pricing for either platform. We will try and give as much information as we can to still be a useful and valid comparison.

Licensing is a tricky subject and the terms for each API are written in pure legalese. We will try to identify and compare the key points using our understanding of each licensing agreement.

When comparing the APIs we will highlight key differences with green highlighting.

UPDATED: We have updated some information about the differences in SLA, thanks for the feedback readers

Free Usage

Often the first question asked is “can we use them for free”, well since November the quick answer for both platforms is yes, as long as you don’t use too much.

Google Maps

• free for use on “public facing” websites (i.e. a site that doesn’t charge for access to the maps). There is limit on how many map loads you can use but its not published and said to be at Google’s discretion
• can be used for commercial usage (where the site makes money)
• free on the understanding advertising may be shown on your map (with 90 days notice)
• free on the understanding any data you display on the maps, Google has the right to re-use in marketing etc as shown in the terms; “you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute Your Content through the Service and as search results through Google Services.”
• No Service Level Agreement – if it goes offline you have no comeback
• The terms of the agreement can change at any time without warning, meaning it might not be free tomorrow
• Gives you access to both the ajax mapping api and mapping related web services
• Cannot be used for real time navigation (sat-nav) due to 3rd party license agreements
• Can we used for asset tracking but only for a service that is free to end users

Bing Maps

• Free for use on “public facing” websites for up to 125,000 map page loads per year or 500,000 map transactions (1 transaction is 8 map 256 pixel square map tiles or one address lookup) per annum
• Free to use if you can prove that you are a not for profit organisation or educational organisation (we would strongly suggest you check the terms and conditions to ensure that your organisation qualifies)
• can be used for commercial usage (where the site makes money)
• No Service Level Agreement – if it goes offline you have no comeback
• The terms of the agreement can change at any time without warning, meaning it might not be free tomorrow
• Gives you access to both the ajax mapping api and mapping related web services
• Any data you “submit” to bing maps you give a license to Microsoft to re-use, however this does not cover data etc hosted by yourself or a thrid party, only data hosted by Microsoft on your behalf.
• free on the understanding advertising or search box may be shown on your map at some point in the future
• Does not include Bings “birds eye imagery” due to the licensing agreement between Microsoft and its birds eye imagery suppliers
• Cannot be used at all for fleet or asset tracking without a commercial license (see below)
• Cannot be used for real time navigation (sat-nav) due to 3rd party license agreements

Commercial Licensing

If you want to use the maps more than is offered by the free licensing, or want to use a feature no available under the free license you will need to pay for a license. Although we cannot give the pricing details for either API we can compare a few features and comment generally about how the licensing works.. Should you wish to enquire about commercial usage in the UK you may want to contact Grey Matter who organize licensing for Microsoft in the UK (or call us but we generally offer advice and are not a licensing reseller).

One important question often asked is does commercial licensing mean you get better imagery or a faster service than the free offerings? For both API’s the answer is no, whether free or commercial you are using the exact same service.

Google Maps

• Covered by an uptime Service Level Agreement (SLA) but only of the map and imagery, not the geocoding services etc
• Available on a sliding price scale with each level including a maximum number of map page loads per annum for a fixed cost
• Available for use on private websites
• Guaranteed no adverts added to the maps without your permission

Bing Maps

• Covered by an uptime Service Level Agreement (SLA) for all services
• Lots of ways of licensing including pricing scale for maximum number of map page loads (same as Google), PayAsYouGo useful for sites with initially unknown usage or very low volume sites.
• From Earthware’s experience the entry price for maximum map page load bundles is considerably lower for Bing than Google
• Guaranteed no adverts added to the maps without your permission

Conclusion

“Enough waffling” I here you cry “just tell us which ones better!”. As we said in our introduction to this series we will not be declaring a winner for each comparison we will leave that up to you.

So in conclusion both API’s now have very similar free offering, although Google’s has no published usage limits so if you want to use it free and have over 125,000 map transactions a year then you might want to consider using Google over Bing however there is no clear guidelines from Google on what their free limit actually is. On the commercial side if you are looking for a lot of flexibility to met your specific projects licensing requirements then give Bing Maps a try as they appear to be more flexible.

One last observation is to be careful when using the free licensing. Free is unlikely to be free forever without some changes. Google have a world leading advertising network but so far have not tried too hard to make advertising really work on all their mapping platforms, however its anyone’s guess how long that will last, Bing maps has never really tried any map advertising at all, but that doesn’t mean they won’t in future. Either way if you are planning a business model for your site that relies on free mapping for the medium to long term be very careful as we have no doubt free won’t be free forever (or at least not as it is currently).

You can check out all the licensing information at the following links:

• Google maps terms
• Google maps premier terms
• Bing maps terms

Over the last few months there has been a large increase in the interest in mapping API’s for developers to use on their own websites. The two major worldwide players in this battle are Google with their Google Maps API and Microsoft with their Bing Maps API (formally Virtual Earth). We often read articles and tweets from people claiming that one or the other is clearly better, and we are tired of reading one-sided ill-informed debate on these comparison issues.

So today we start a new blog series on comparing the two mapping APIs as objectively as possible and hopefully with a number of you readers contributing your own information and opinions. Let’s start by openly saying that although here at Earthware we are API agnostic and try to use the best API for each individual project. However, mainly due to a focus on property in the UK where Bird’s Eye is often a clear differentiator in deciding on the best API, we definitely have more experience and involvement in the Bing Maps API.

We will try and evaluate various parts of the mapping APIs on mostly objective measures with some clearly marked opinions from us and you the reader (via comments). We WILL NOT be declaring an overall winner because it’s neither possible nor helpful to do so (we believe the right API depends on a lot of variables specific to each client and project), we will leave that up to you.

What will we be comparing?

Just so it’s clear from the outset, we will be comparing:

1. The ajax / javascript developer APIs for Google Maps and Bing Maps
2. Each platforms’ overall performance
3. Developer support with documentation and communities
4. Licensing
5. The state of the platforms right now (Jan 2010) not their historical features and performance

What we won’t be comparing:

1. Google Earth or Bing Maps 3d
2. The main Google maps or Bing maps websites (these are developer APIs)
3. Aerial coverage in one location or during one time period (more on that later)
4. Unreleased or road-mapped features

How to get involved

We are really keen to get you our readers involved and to collect and add your ideas, information and informed opinions to the debate. If you have any feedback you wish to make, or ideas for what you’d like to see compared please add your comments below.

After months of biting their tongues, Bing have finally announced their latest additions to Bing Maps by releasing the beta version of Silverlight Bing Maps which features two new map modes (Streetside View and Enhanced Bird’s Eye) plus an Application Gallery and also Photosynth to name just a few.

The entire site is built in Silverlight (although the Bing Maps AJAX site is still available  if for some reason you don’t want to see the amazing new features). Features include:

Streetside: ground level, fully stitched together high res photographs giving a seamless 360 degree panorama.

Enhanced Bird’s Eye: In urban areas: Bing have used high resolution photography and stereo data to create 3D models of locations and placed them into the 2D interface of a webpage but with 3D aspect ratio from Silverlight 3. In non-urban areas: Bing have used their satellite imagery and aerial photos and re-projected the Earth to give a better perspective of the world.

Application Gallery: a catalogue of all the Bing Maps applications creating a simplified search and bookmarking function.

Photosynth: now fully integrated into the maps so you can fly in from space straight into your next door neighbours lounge(!) (but only if they have created a synth of course).

Simultaneous Multiple Searches: perform multiple searches within one map to discover all you can (tweets, blogs articles, local businesses, imagery etc)about a location without leaving the map.

Local Search Integration: Bing Local Search fully integrated into Bing Maps (the opposite has been available for a while).

Simplified Navigation: The navigation buttons have been moved to the bottom of the page and you can select Automatic (based on user feedback), Road, Aerial or Bird’s Eye or Streetside (our new friend ‘Blue Man’) views.

Integrated 1-Click Directions: if you know where you’re trying to get to, search for the location and select directions to get there approaching from the north, south, east or west.

Route Query Parsing: if you are planning to drive from, for example, Seattle to San Diego just enter “Seattle to San Diego” in the search box and get point to point driving directions.

Auto-Location Detection: when you load Bing Maps in Silverlight the site will automatically detect where you are located and centre the map to show your current position.

Weather: weather information has been embedded into the maps allowing you to view the latest weather conditions at your current location (using the auto-location detection) or for the location you are searching for.

Images: Bing Image Search has been integrated into Bing Maps giving you instant access to images of the location you are searching for.

Defined Regions Query Parsing: search for a neighbourhood within a city, for example, “San Diego Gaslamp,” and the map will centre on that neighbourhood and highlight the area on the map.

For a full list and description of the new features read Chris Pendleton’s blog or if you would rather watch a demo click here.

The Earthware team has been eagerly awaiting this latest offering from Bing Maps. The enhanced functionality is set to make displaying and searching for location based information much more simple. We know the Bing Maps team have been working very hard to develop this and we congratulate them on what they have achieved.

If you are interested in creating a map using Silverlight (or any other mapping API) to display your information then please drop us a line at info@earthware.co.uk.

We live in exciting times as Bing Maps developers, and these next few month look to continue to be exciting as we have two upcoming developer events to attend.

The first event is the Microsoft Bing Maps developer day on 25th November in Reading which you can register for here http://is.gd/4NFjv. Come and hear Earthware’s Brian Norman talk about our experience developing the Bing Maps World Tour application for Microsoft. Also speaking are the excellent Johannes Kebeck (Microsoft) and Ricky Brundrit (Infusion Development). If you haven’t had much time recently to keep up with the latest releases, especially the Silverlight control then it’s and event not to miss.

The second event is even more exciting for us as it has taken a long while for a UK Bing Maps developer community to emerge but it looks like we are there now. Put the evening of 13th January 2009 in you diary now as it will be the first meeting of the Bing Maps UK User Group! This will be an opportunity for us developers to really kick back and geek out on Bing Maps, with free beer and pizza to set the right mood. This is a community run event, the first meeting being sponsored by Microsoft, which we hope will inspire us continue to create great Bing Maps applications here in the UK. Register for the event here http://is.gd/4VpOs.

We live in exciting times as Bing Maps developers, and these next few month look to continue to be exciting as we have two upcoming developer events to attend.

The first event is the Microsoft Bing Maps developer day on 25th November in Reading which you can register for here http://is.gd/4NFjv. Come and hear Earthware’s Brian Norman talk about our experience developing the Bing Maps World Tour application for Microsoft. Also speaking are the excellent Johannes Kebeck (Microsoft) and Ricky Brundrit (Infusion Development). If you haven’t had much time recently to keep up with the latest releases, especially the Silverlight control then it’s and event not to miss.

The second event is even more exciting for us as it has taken a long while for a UK Bing Maps developer community to emerge but it looks like we are there now. Put the evening of 13th January 2009 in you diary now as it will be the first meeting of the Bing Maps UK User Group! This will be an opportunity for us developers to really kick back and geek out on Bing Maps, with free bear and pizza to set the right mood. This is a community run event, the first meeting being sponsored by Microsoft, which we hope will inspire us continue to create great Bing Maps applications here in the UK. Register for the event here http://is.gd/4VpOs.

Earthware are delighted to have been invited by Gary McCausland (from BBC1’s “Axe the Agent” to do the web design, web development, interactive mapping and SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) for his new venture Rovster.

Rovster allows a property owner who wants to “sell my house privately” to sign up and advertise online with a free property listing.  Whether you have flats to rent, property to rent or you want to buy a property in … or sell my house in …. then Rovster is seeking to debunk the property market.

We are delighted that not only did Gary decide to integrate Earthware interactive property mapping but also to use our sister, The Technology Studio to do the web design and development.

We wish Gary every success with Rovster!

The Earthware team