Microsoft has rolled out a Bing Maps beta that - with its enhanced imagery and 3-D functionality - is undoubtedly designed to take on Google. Other features though, including the ability to overlay social media such as tweets - could eventually be much valuable to online and mobile marketers than just an alternative to Google Maps.

A development platform currently only in limited release lets users create "mash-ins" on top of a map, according to a blog post by Satya Nadella, Microsoft's senior VP for online services. These could be tweets on the map from their originating location, or local blogs placed physically on a map.

Augmented Reality

These developments lay the groundwork for apps that use augmented reality, according to John Havens, VP of social media at Porter Novelli (via TechNewsWorld). "Augmented reality is going to be a very powerful tool," he said. "Right now, Yelp has a tool called 'Monocle' - a user holds up a phone using the app and pans it from left to right. Let's say you are in San Francisco and want to find a coffee shop. You start panning the phone around, and you can see the icons for coffee shops, along with consumers' comments about each shop."

Such apps will have significant ramifications for commerce when they go mainstream, Havens added. "Stores will be able to tweet, for example, about products and services they are offering passersby."

Other Offerings

Bing Beta offers other features as well. There is What's Nearby, an app that shows users stores or amenities that are close to an address they have searched for. This app automatically searches for nearby amenities and delivers results sorted by category. Bing Maps also has a crowdsourcing element to that incorporates Photosynths (3-D photos) generated by the community. Nadella gives the example of a user searching for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. There are Photosynths of the internal exhibits - which can be viewed from several different angles - embedded in the museum's icon.