If it’s about searching for locations, you must be aware of Google Maps. Why Google Maps is popular is because of its highly detailed 2D map. You will be amazed to see that Google is wise enough to display even the less important roads. Another popular feature of Google Maps is its detailed Street View. It shows quite accurate details in a 360 degrees angle.
Another popular Map service provider in the game is Bing. Most people prefer the Bing Areal view (Bird’s eye view) over Google Maps satellite view as it is highly detailed.
So if I want to get highly accurate details about a certain location what I would do is search for the location in Google Maps, view the 2D map then go to Bing and search for the satellite view of the same. Doing so is not as convenient as it sounds. There are many times I wish there was some ‘Super Map’ which brings together the strengths of both these amazing services.
Much to my amazement, I found out such a service! Dual Maps is the name that brings together Google Maps and Bing Maps together under one hood. Let’s take a deeper look in to this service.
What is Dual Maps?
Dual Maps is one of the web services offered by MapChannels.com – an organization that lets users embed different sorts of maps into their websites and blogs. There are many services offered by them but Dual Maps is what caught my eye. Let’s see how to use this service.
How to Use Dual Map?
- Go to MapChannels.com
- In the page you will be able to see lots of news and other details about the service.
- In Get Started section visit the page Tools.
- There you can see a list of map service they offer.
- Choose the very first one which is Dual Maps.
- It will take you to a preview of Dual maps.
- There you will be able to three panels with Google 2D map, Street view and Bing Map.
- You can Enable or disable street view using the check box below.
- Next to the Street view check box you can find links to go full screen and reset.
- In Google map you can find all the standard views such as Map, Satellite, terrain etc.
- Even in Bing maps you can switch between views such as Road, areal and Bird’s eye view.
- When you are moving the Google Map, Bing map also getting located to the same place in real time.
How Embed This Map In Your Website?
- First move the map to desired location.
- Scroll Down the page to see advanced customization
- There you can alter entire set of standard features in Google Map and Bing Maps.
- You can set the size of Map in Pixel.
- One of the most interesting feature, you can set the icon for Google Street view such as Pegnam (default), car or panda.
- After setting all the functions the way you want click on the button Create.
- Right below the map preview you will be able to find Embed code as well as direct link to the created map.
- You can easily embed it in your web page or direct your users to created map.
Here is a Dual Map I created.
Here is the Direct link to this map.
This will be a great tool for web developers especially when they are creating websites for businesses. In the context of business, adding this kind of highly detailed interactive map to your website would be an extra color as well as a competitive advantage.
Tags: #Bing #Google