Azure Maps and lack of features

I used to work on the maps team at Microsoft, here is my perspective. Birdseye and Streetside imagery is incredibly expensive to capture (even the storage cost in the cloud for the imagery is incredibly expensive). Most of the imagery Bing Maps has of these types are very old, a lot of it is 10+ years old and not a good representation of the current reality. From a business perspective, nearly all the usage of this feature came from the Bing Maps consumer site (bing.com/maps), there has hardly been any usage of these features in the enterprise Bing Maps platform for years. I talked to many companies in the past who were admit on the importance of these features as part of their app, but when checking the data, they were usually hardly being used. I suspect that the cost of simply hosting this data far exceeds the revenue it generates, let alone the cost it would take to update the imagery. I'm not sure what the team has planned, but it would be pretty cool if they brought the 3D maps they have on bing.com/maps to the enterprise platform.

Hi Cas Baker,

Thank you for reaching out on the Microsoft Q&A.

I can understand your frustration about the removal of the StreetSide and Bird's Eye View features with the switch to Azure Maps. It’s definitely tough when you feel like you’re losing functionality that you’ve come to rely on.

The decision to transition to Azure Maps was likely based on a variety of factors, including service enhancements and technological advancements. While StreetSide and Bird's Eye View are indeed unique features, Azure Maps offers a robust set of services focusing on geospatial capabilities, such as routing, search services, and traffic information that are designed to improve overall functionality and user experience.

If you’re looking for alternatives to those features, you might want to explore the following Azure Maps services:

• Render Service: This provides customizable maps, including road and satellite layers.
• Traffic Service: For real-time information about traffic flow and incidents.
• Weather Service: For mapping current weather conditions alongside your locations.

Here's a couple of resources that might help you understand more about Azure Maps and its offerings:

• Azure Maps Overview
• Azure Maps Render Service Coverage

I hope this helps clarify the transition to Azure Maps, and I encourage you to explore the platform as there may be new features that could be beneficial for you! Please let me know if there are any remaining questions or additional details, I can help with, I’ll be glad to provide further clarification or guidance.

I Hope this helps. Do let me know if you have any further queries.

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Thank you!