Bing Maps recently introduced new features that could help small businesses attract more customers by helping travelers find their way more easily.
New Bing Maps Features Could Help Small Businesses and Travelers
The new ‘experiences’ as Bing calls them includes a Distance Calculator App, a Gas Prices Map App, and a Parking Finder Map App. As their names imply, they help travelers find out how far away certain places are, as well as where to get good gas prices along the way and somewhere to park at the destination.
New features Make Travelling Easier
Small businesses can expect more visitors from out of town with the new features, as it will help people enjoy a journey beyond their local vicinity without worrying about the logistics of the trip.
Knowing the exact distance, where to get gas and where to park make planning a quick trip with Bing Maps much easier for people who like to get out and enjoy themselves in new places.
Find the Closest and Best Priced Gas Stations
Using an example journey from Seattle to San Diego, Bing explain how the Gas Prices Map App works: “The Gas Prices Map feature is pretty self-explanatory – it finds gas prices within a 5-mile radius of where you’re searching. It also doubles as a gas station finder app. So, we’ll look closer at the beginning of our route in Seattle and find the closest gas station with the best price. Because we can have two map apps running simultaneously in different browser pages, we can see our route from Seattle to San Diego still on the map. This allows us to see where these gas stations are relative to our route. So, while Union 76 is $5.90 per gallon, there’s a Shell station that’s $5.52 per gallon and that is a significant difference of 38 cents per gallon, so it does pay to shop around before you leave.
“Starting the Gas Prices Map App loads all gas stations as soon as you ask; it’s as quick as the Distance Calculator App because they are all supported by Bing Places and Bing Maps. You’ll notice the branded icons on the left navigation panel with name, address, and price information per station along with pins on the map. Clicking on any of the pins will pop up a callout that gives you the same information, plus the last date and time the information was updated. There’s also a link to get directions from within Bing Maps. Clicking on any of the gas stations found on the left-hand navigation of the app will re-center the map to the respective gas station.”
Find the Perfect Parking Spot
The Parking Finder Map App not only helps you find a place to park the car, but also uses contextual business information such as addresses, opening hours, and phone numbers, which are listed at the side of the map.
Hovering over each P-shaped pin on the map will provide the contextual information, as well as give you any information about the type of parking lot it is. It will tell you if it is an indoor or outdoor lot, self-parking or valet, as well as what kind of payment types are accepted.
For the latest, follow us on Google News.
Image: Depositphotos
As someone who really dislikes looking for parking, I would definitely use the parking feature.