Saturday, July 9, 2011

Indoor Maps on Windows Phone 7.5 Mango

Indoor maps appear in the Windows Phone Mango Maps application. A few places are actually listed as having indoor maps (such as FAO Schwartz), but when tapping them indoor maps would not appear in Bing Maps. Times Square however, did work. This location isn’t really an indoor location, but it's the first step in the direction towards an indoor LBS user experience. The indoor maps show all of the stores and how they are laid out right there in Times Square. There’s a little button in the upper left corner that lets you switch between levels if you’re looking at a multi-story indoor location, and there’s also a “Directory” button that shows you all of the stores in the specific location.





Bing Maps venue maps now feature nine largest US malls, 148 total.

These are:
Mall of America, MN
South Coast Plaza, CA
Woodfield Shopping Center, IL
King of Prussia Mall, PA
Millcreek Mall, PA
Del Amo Fashion Center, CA
Houston Galleria, TX
Roosevelt Field, NY
Tysons Corner Center, VA
*As listed by the International Council of Shopping Centers

For most of the mall maps, you can see parking, ATMs, entrances, as well as many other mall services. Additionally, when searching on Bing Maps for a certain mall or store within that mall, you will be shown a “mall map” link in the search results contact card.