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Microsoft Kills Off MapPoint and Streets and Trips In Favor of Bing Maps

Posted by Unknown on from the 90s-time-warp-fixed dept.

DroidJason1 (3589319) writes Microsoft has killed off two of its mapping products, MapPoint and Streets & Trips. Both of these services have received their last update and will soon be retired in favor of Microsoft's premier mapping product, Bing Maps. The company has yet to go public with a press release announcing the retirement of these two mapping services, but the Redmond giant has quietly mentioned the fate on both the services' websites. MapPoint was first released back in 1999 and made it easier to view, edit, and integrate maps into software. Streets & Trips was a route planning package. Microsoft is now pushing Bing Maps exclusively.

7 of 174 comments (clear)

  1. Problem with proprietary 'free' offerings by jkrise · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You never know when they will get killed. Same goes for Free Sharepoint, Free Office 365, Free One Drive etc. Get off them and breathe free.

    --
    If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
    1. Re:Problem with proprietary 'free' offerings by amiga3D · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I do keep paper maps as backups. They have the added benefit of not needing batteries.

    2. Re:Problem with proprietary 'free' offerings by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Are you fucking kidding me? I've have seen WAY more open source projects just wither away and die than I have any software, commercial or freeware, backed by an actual company. Just having access to the source code doesn't mean a thing.

    3. Re:Problem with proprietary 'free' offerings by ruir · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Microsoft has no whatsoever interest to contribute to a model that favours a business continuity plan, and quite by the contrary, has they have a monopolist position they have all the interest of breaking such a model to forcing all the believers to upgrade to new and shiniest toy. Despite this, they have lost the battle with Google, and all their twists and tales to promote bing have been pathetic, at least.

  2. And, probaly, nothing of value was lost. by wvmarle · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I for one had never even heard of these products, and I don't think I've ever encountered a web site using it. All I see is Google Maps when sites need to do something with mapping.

  3. Re:What MS needs to do is by 91degrees · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Only if Google stop making their map crapper.

    They still use the wrong colours for UK roads. Orange, orange and yellow-orange is not a good colour scheme.

    The new map interace is slow. I can't just click a "from" and a "to". I have to find the place I want to go.

  4. Re:What MS needs to do is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Damn right about Google. Their maps' legibility have fallen dramatically since their last iteration. When I open my local area, the names of roads, lanes, paths, woods, ponds and lots of other cartographic noise are visible, but whole towns and villages are missing. Only one or two villages are visible out of the 20-30 in the area and these are in a lighter font than the damn 10 hectare wood/pond/back-lane next to it. On top of this, odd places are highlighted (far more prominent) even when logged out. I've no idea why the name of a farm business 5 miles away is more important than the 3 000 people living anonymously in the unlabelled village next to it.