Yes, Bing Maps does still exist, and thanks to a brand-new update, you might even have a reason to use it again.
Starting yesterday, Bing Maps has access to 35,000 traffic cameras across 11 countries, including Australia. Sure, in this day and age of crowd-sourced traffic info a cop-dodging Waze, cameras feel a little passé. But if you’re anything like me, you know the highway choke-points on your routes, and two glances at a live camera can tell you more than most of Google’s squiggly red lines.
To see the cameras, you have to be using the preview version of the new Bing Maps. Then, click the Traffic layer, zoom in, and you should get a bunch of traffic cameras you can click on.
It has seemed for the longest time like Google is the only player in Maps, and that’s probably still true when you consider local information and user base. But Bing’s traffic system is actually very clever, the new interface is slick as hell — could we finally have a competitor?
[Bing]