A while back I blogged about Internet Explorer Accelerators that used Bing services for quickly highlighting text and performing subsequent searches (see, “Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 Includes Virtual Earth”). Well, Apple’s Safari browser has extensions that allow 3rd party services, such as Bing, to add on capabilities such as Bing Search, Bing Travel and arguably most important Bing Maps.
If you have Safari installed, go to the Safari Extensions page and download the Bing Highlights extension (from within Safari). Once you’ve installed the Bing Highlights extender for Safari, you can go to any web page within the Safari browser, highlight an address with your mouse or touchpad and you’ll see a pushpin icon in the extender. Clicking the pushpin will load a Bing Map right within Safari with links to view the address in Bing Maps or get directions to or from the respective location. Alternatively, click the magnifying glass and you’ll see some options for searching Bing. Select “Search for a map” and you will be magically transported over to Bing Maps with the location geocoded and centered at the respective match. So, now we’ve made it so easy to get maps even if you’re on Safari with a simple select and click.
Also, in case you were wondering, you can switch your default search in the Safari browser (upper right) to Bing too. Just click the down arrow in the search box and select Bing. Get your browser all Bing’d out! To learn more about the Bing Extension for Safari, read up on the Bing Search Blog.
Follow me @BingMaps, ^CP
Thanks Chris to provide this information about bing, if any other extension are available for IE then provided us. i mainly use IE so if you you had then please provide me the information.
Thanks Again.
Cool this is great!
Microsoft is like the Nazi's of WWII when the Russians built a better tank. The Nazi's knew it was better but they could not get themselves to build one like it because they did not originate the idea. Anyway, it is near impossible to get a suggestion to MS. I would like Bing Maps and a navigator for Android. I would like these maps to reside on my phone so when I loose connection I don't get lost. If you're on a phone call and tying to use Google navigator the bandwidth is usually to small. Microsoft needs to get in while you still have a chance. Proceed with your Windows Mobile but you need to get into this Android mix. Again with the tank analogy do not lose the war! Balmer needs to go already.
There was a demo of Bing Maps done last night at the NY Tech Meetup which showed floor plans/layouts of buildings and businesses. I'm having trouble figuring out how to see that.. any help? Or has it not launched to the public yet?
@minkstein - I think you're referring to map overlays: www.bing.com/.../bing-maps-adds-map-app-ratings-map-overlays-and-more.aspx.
CP