Bing Maps frustrations

drokkon · Dec 20, 2011

So last week I went to stay in a condo with some friends. They texted me the address and it conveniently created a link that took me right to Bing maps. I was a half-hour late because Bing Maps dropped me off THIRTEEN MILES AWAY from the actual address. This is fully the THIRD time that I've been late or completely missed an event because Bing maps couldn't get me to the right place. Worse, every time someone asks why I was late and I respond "my phone took me to the wrong place," they ask what I'm using. When I reluctantly admit that it is Bing, I always get something to the effect of, "oh, THAT'S why."

In the end, I used the gMaps app to get to the right place. The weirdest thing is that when I went to Bing Maps on a browser at the condo, it GOT THE ADDRESS RIGHT! It's only the Bing Maps on my phone that dropped me off far, far away.

Try it for yourself on your Windows phone "Maps" app, on Bing Maps on a browser, or on Google Maps:

4010 Silverheels Dr, Silverthorn, CO 80498

(I know "Silverthorne" is misspelled, but that's how it was in the text message, so I'm leaving it as-is for troubleshooting reasons.)

WHY?!?!?!?

ScottSUmmers · Dec 20, 2011

Interesting. Maybe it's whatever certain APIs are exposed to the mobile Bing app? Clearly, the web version has some kind of auto correction the mobile version doesn't/can't access.

Btw, how come you didn't question why it was placing the marker on the green side of a mountain?

Localhorst86 · Dec 20, 2011

I can not verify this. I typed in the adress just as you specified, and this is what it came up with. I checked in google maps and bing maps. Bing maps is identical google maps is ~500 feet west of the spot, so practically the same.

DJBlaster-303 · Dec 20, 2011

in my city some zip codes are wrong!

drokkon · Dec 20, 2011

ScottSUmmers said:
Btw, how come you didn't question why it was placing the marker on the green side of a mountain?

lol...my wife was navigating from her Focus. I never saw the thing. Even then, I probably would have believed it, as I've been up many crazy mountain roads in this state, and it wouldn't have surprised me at all if the condo had been 13 miles out of town on a mountainside.

Localhorst86 said:
I can not verify this. I typed in the adress just as you specified, and this is what it came up with. I checked in google maps and bing maps. Bing maps is identical google maps is ~500 feet west of the spot, so practically the same.

Weird. Apparently ScottSUmmers gets the same result I do. What your screenshot shows is where I was SUPPOSED to be.

I wish I could take a screenshot to show you what I'm seeing. Thanks for checking!

drokkon · Dec 20, 2011

Localhorst86 said:
I can not verify this. I typed in the adress just as you specified, and this is what it came up with. I checked in google maps and bing maps. Bing maps is identical google maps is ~500 feet west of the spot, so practically the same.

PS: Google maps would still be more accurate based on your screenshot, as the actual address was no more than halfway down that street, not all the way at the end.

RoboDad · Dec 20, 2011

I think the misspelling is the key. If I put the address in my phone exactly as shown (without the 'e') it is way wrong. But if I add the 'e', it goes to the right spot.

When I use the web version of Bing Maps, it tells me that the city is spelled incorrectly, and auto-corrects it. That seems to be the piece that is broken/missing on WP7.

drokkon · Dec 20, 2011

RoboDad said:
I think the misspelling is the key. If I put the address in my phone exactly as shown (without the 'e') it is way wrong. But if I add the 'e', it goes to the right spot.

When I use the web version of Bing Maps, it tells me that the city is spelled incorrectly, and auto-corrects it. That seems to be the piece that is broken/missing on WP7.

That was also my experience. Strange, since there's not two similarly-named towns out there or anything. How one letter could confuse their system so much I have no idea. I'm waiting for an address for my wife so I can demonstrate one of the other two times Bing has steered me way wrong.

Maybe it's just my state, but if I can't trust Bing, then I can't use Bing.

Localhorst86 · Dec 20, 2011

weird, though. I left out the "e" as well on my phone, it still found it...

EDIT: I just realized this. I typed it without the "e" and it showed up as "Silverthorn" in the destination entry. But as soon as I hit enter to calculate the route, my phone would automatically change the town to "Silverthorne". I cannot at all search for "silverthorn"

C4NCER · Dec 21, 2011

13 miles is nothing, try 8668 miles. see this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wNQVTjw4vU
I get the same results every time.

ROCOAFZ · Dec 21, 2011

drokkon said:
So last week I went to stay in a condo with some friends. They texted me the address and it conveniently created a link that took me right to Bing maps. I was a half-hour late because Bing Maps dropped me off THIRTEEN MILES AWAY from the actual address. This is fully the THIRD time that I've been late or completely missed an event because Bing maps couldn't get me to the right place. Worse, every time someone asks why I was late and I respond "my phone took me to the wrong place," they ask what I'm using. When I reluctantly admit that it is Bing, I always get something to the effect of, "oh, THAT'S why."

In the end, I used the gMaps app to get to the right place. The weirdest thing is that when I went to Bing Maps on a browser at the condo, it GOT THE ADDRESS RIGHT! It's only the Bing Maps on my phone that dropped me off far, far away.

Try it for yourself on your Windows phone "Maps" app, on Bing Maps on a browser, or on Google Maps:

4010 Silverheels Dr, Silverthorn, CO 80498

(I know "Silverthorne" is misspelled, but that's how it was in the text message, so I'm leaving it as-is for troubleshooting reasons.)

WHY?!?!?!?

It is probably because Windows phone doesn't force autocorrect. (instead suggests unline the iphone for example and others) it underlined it as possibly wrong on mine with correct suggestion (when doing search in bing maps on phone) Bing maps on the pc just assumes you ment the correct one and takes u there.

thekiller99 · Dec 21, 2011

I was driving to the airport one day and decided to use map on my HTC HD7. I don't know if its my phone company's fault or my phone.

1)The refresh rate on my phone was so slow i couldn't even see where im going on my phone
2)For some reason when I enabled always facing where my car is facing the Map app on Wp7 doesn't work at all
3)The voice which is suppose to help you doesn't work at all.

I gave up using the map app on my phone and switched to Outdoor navigation instead

ninjy · Dec 21, 2011

Same here, some street numbers are inverted... almost missed a meeting...

uvspy · Dec 21, 2011

I've had a long list of experiences where bing maps gave the wrong street, city, ghost locations, etc and I have come to the realization that I can't trust it... I use it for directions in the city (nyc), and you would think that businesses would be well mapped. Oh well... maybe ovi maps can step up to google maps :/

svtfmook · Dec 21, 2011

searching "fedex drop off location" took me to dairy queen last night. needless to say, the package was late, but, i got an oreo blizzard. so i'm torn with bing maps right now. yes, i missed my shipment, but, i got a blizzard...

it was like, "sorry i screwed you up, here's some ice cream to make you feel better... by the way, you got $2.99 i can borrow?"

Aphasaic2002 · Jan 11, 2012

Count yourself lucky if Bing Maps or Local Scout actually works in your country. They're *still* broken in most regions of the world.

sure haven't · Jan 11, 2012

Happens to me all the time. Even if I type it right into the map search.

That's why I always find it on google maps on a desktop first, then crosscheck it with the Bing result. I don't trust it. Probably never will.

MJCS · Jan 11, 2012

Yeah typing the full address is usually important but I tend to leave out the city and state and just do 4010 Silverheels Dr 80498 reason being is there are sometimes cities or sub divisions near eachother that contain the same name and can have the same street name. This is why UPS/FEDEX/USPS don't give a hoot about your city name (that is really just there for you) they like to use zip or even better zip + 4.

Now it sounds strange but look up your friends address http://zip4.usps.com/zip4/zcl_0_results.jsp here at the USPS. It dosent exist!

---------- Post added at 08:16 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:54 PM ----------

Ok so now this is funny. Go lookup "80498" in google maps. Now look it up in Bing. Now with yahoo.

They all place 80498 in roughly the same place.

You will notice that that center is over 25 miles away (via roads) to the city you were looking for. 80498 shares the same zip as Heeney, CO.

I would consider 80498 as a rural area and therefore the single zip code covers a very very big area. Bing's Default search radius is somewhere between 5-15 miles. There definately is a bug in how Bing Mobile resolves a typo (yeah if you typed it right you would have gotten there right away).

The way Tom Tom (for example) looks up address is in logical order:
State -> City -> Street -> Building Number.

GPS' have to do this so they give you context and a filtered view. Imagine if you started typing 4010 how many address would popup!

Anyways...just submit a bug report by clicking the address in the map clicking the "..."'s and then clicking suggest changes. They will change it for you.

Don't think that Bing is the only one that screws up however, I've seen Google, yahoo, mapquest (yeah remember them?), Waze, TomTom, and garmin all give me wrong directions.

xzevious · Apr 23, 2012

I guess they must have fixed this, I got linked to this discussion from another thread, yet when I tried it on my HD7 (TMOUS 8107), it automatically corrected it for me from the bing maps search and showed me the same thing the web app does (although it didn't warn me like the web app that it was corrected). Just for giggles I emailed the address to myself to see if it was a link related thing and got the same correct result. I noticed how old the thread is but just wanted to say that it looks like it was fixed at some point (which is an assumption since I never got to see it broken). Perhaps the partnership with Nokia included address resolution logic changes?

4010 Silverheels Dr, Silverthorn, CO 80498

NeuroXT · Apr 23, 2012

My list of Bing Maps frustrations:
- It doesn't map a route from one country to another, otherwise everything works well.

Wouldnt it be fab if Bing can actually route directions from your location to another, worldwide? Like with public transits included from and to.

Bing Maps frustrations

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