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

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.

Comments

Problem with proprietary 'free' offerings

[jkrise]

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.

Re:Problem with proprietary 'free' offerings

[amiga3D]

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

Re:Problem with proprietary 'free' offerings

[tlhIngan]

I knew of Streets and Trips from way back when - it was one of the earliest available GPS packages that almost featured turn-by-turn.

Way back when GPS was horrendously expensive.

I didn't even know they still sold it - I suppose its advantage was it was offline and had everything or so in one box.

Guess that's why they killed it - people remember it, but didn't realize it was still around - you certainly don't see it advertised anywhere.

Re:Problem with proprietary 'free' offerings

[Mashiki]

The question is how many people actually know how to read a paper map these days. I'll be it's damned few since they don't even teach it in school anymore, let alone how to use a compass.

Re:Problem with proprietary 'free' offerings

[shutdown -p now]

HERE Maps (by Nokia) also work offline, at least on Win8 and WP8.

Re:Problem with proprietary 'free' offerings

[peragrin]

Actually last I looked my mothers job used it. it integrated into the rest of their software package so that addresses and route planning could be done easy.

Not sure if they currently can use it but since bing maps like google maps requires internet connections probably not. Not every where they travel have 2G service let alone 3G.

What gets me is why doesn't google or bing maps have an offline mode?Cache a couple of states or even just counties.

Re:Problem with proprietary 'free' offerings

[Bigbutt]

I have the 2004 version of Streets and Trips. I use it for mapping my motorcycle rides. Unlike google maps, I can set where I spend the night, start and stop times, how much gas cost, how often to stop, and even set weights for various aspects of my trips so it'll pick the optimum route for what I want to do (for instance, Beartooth Pass).

And yea, I thought they stopped making it years ago. I'll have to snag the newest version. My 2004 version has worked just fine since I got it.

[John]

Re:Problem with proprietary 'free' offerings

[Bigbutt]

They taught map reading in school? How to read a compass? When/where was this? I learned it in Boy Scouts.

Fortunately us Touring motorcycle riders tend to use paper maps. Unfortunately paper maps are difficult to come by. You have to be a member of AAA to get access to decent maps. Otherwise you're stuck with the Rest Area state maps. Not horrible, I've used them occasionally but they are pretty cheaply printed. Opening the map has it tear at the creases.

[John]

Re:Problem with proprietary 'free' offerings

[LWATCDR]

Actually Streets and Trips has a lot of features that Google maps and I bet Bing maps lack for trip planning.
For example you can tell it when you are going to leave, your MPG, fuel tank size, and how many hours you want to drive a day. Streets and Trips will suggest refueling points and stopping points.
I wish the online maps "Google" would put those features in and allow you to push the trip to your mobile device.

Re:Problem with proprietary 'free' offerings

[CODiNE]

Surprised at all the responses with no mention of OpenStreetMap.

Unlimited data download in various formats. Convert to Garmin/Tom Tom/whatever if you like and have custom GPS maps. Print PDF maps, wall maps, tour books, etc... Plenty of mobile apps to download entire cities and even countries with no time limits.

The key point to remember is that OpenStreetMap is open DATA and there's hundreds of apps and projects built around it letting you do just about anything you can think of. Including several routing APIs and services.

I'm always amazed MS blew the mapping race

[0xdeaddead]

when they had Microsoft TerraServer running on those sweet DEC Alpha's back in 1998. Instead of launching a new and exciting mapping service, they just settled for a minor showcase for SQL Server 7 with a database greater than 1TB.

Talk about a company with zero vision.

Re:I'm always amazed MS blew the mapping race

[Anonymous Coward]

Because upper management there is only concerned with a project long enough to use it to jump to the next bigger project. And, bigger is not defined as more important. It's a project with more employees. When I jumped to Expedia very early in that company's history, it was a pleasure to work there. Importance of a project was based upon the number of customers and/or profit. The goal of making a good product and attracting and keeping customers was pounded into us constantly. At Microsoft, making a profit or making customers happy was never a goal of upper management. I never once heard any feedback from customers. At Expedia, we did constant A/B tests and were told exactly what worked and what didn't. That's how you make a better product.

Re:I'm always amazed MS blew the mapping race

[amiga3D]

What really bothers me about carbon based lifeforms such as yourself is not the fact you're a racist idiot but rather the feelings you bring out in me. When I first read your hateful, pointless spew I immediately thought of how to hunt down and kill you to cull your DNA from the herd. I then felt shame for sinking down into the muck with you. Off to take a shower to get the slimy stench off me.

And, probaly, nothing of value was lost.

[wvmarle]

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.

Re:And, probaly, nothing of value was lost.

[Voyager529]

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.

Well, duh. MapPoint and S&T was a plastic-disc software title, intended for end users to do stuff without an internet connection. See kids, in the days between the joys of attempting to re-fold a paper map and always-on, always-connected internet streamed maps, companies got all the street information together and sold a software release in a perpetual licensing format. People could then take their laptops and a serial (later USB and/or Bluetooth) GPS add-on and navigate with a laptop, without worrying about data plans, cellular outages, or getting stuck on a necessary phone call that brought into question one's allegiance to accurate navigation.

In the case of MapPoint, routes and distances were mass queried and used in tandem with Access and Excel to make geographical and topological data useful in a business context.

Websites are going to use Google maps (or yahoo/mapquest/bing, to a much lesser extent) because their APIs allow embedded maps nice and easily. For folks who need offline information, Google Maps was never intended to fill that space. Now, it seems, Delorme is the sole holdout for plastic disc mapping software.

I Use Streets and Trips on RV Trips

[C0L0PH0N]

I am a retired computer guy, and an RVer. I've used Streets and Trips for the past three years, and have found it invaluable for RV travelling. What makes Streets and Trips work so well for travelers is that it is always there, whether you have Internet or not. And my experience even with a smart phone and hotspot capabilities, is that travellers do not always have access to the Internet. Which renders MS's "Bing" solution useless. And Streets and Trips on my laptop is connected to a printer, so printing out strip maps for the next day is easy. It makes it easy to create long trips, stop by stop, and save the whole route. I'm talking about several months and 10,000 miles of traveling here. I've tried using Google and Bing maps, but actually, the closest trip planning tool I've found that provides for long range planning and in any detail I want is actually Google Earth. But until Streets and Trips is dead, I will be using it. And it sounds like it should work for the next several years.

Re:What MS needs to do is

[91degrees]

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.

Re:What MS needs to do is

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Garmin for the win

[SternisheFan]

I drive a cab in the metro NY City area, a dedicated GPS is the right tool for my job. GARMIN MV3590 LMT (Lifetime Maps/Traffic) is my reccomendation. I have no time to screw around with online maps and their inherent issues, I need to get where my fares need to be. AA quality, updated GPS does this.

Crack open your wallet and spend $300 on this Garmin and you'll have noticed you have less problems, and the voice recognition software gets it right over 90% of the time.