Microsoft releases preview of new Bing Maps with focus on travel planning

Microsoft has unveiled a new preview of Bing Maps for the web

According to thenextweb.com, the redesigned Bing Maps now takes up nearly the entirety of the user's browser with their search results organized into floating cards displayed to the left and remembers the searches by the users. The floating cards show information such as time and similar nearby businesses and the users can also add multiple destinations to view them all at the same time.

Microsoft says it has designed the maps to be more touch-friendly and intuitive.

The users can now choose between aerial and road views. The users can save favorites, adding routes or getting streetside views is just a right-click or long press.

Also, Bing will now use predictive routing to estimate travel times based on expected traffic.

Meanwhile, a new 'Along the Route' feature makes planning road trips easy by listing hotels, restaurants and gas stations the users will be near to during their journey.

In addition, a My Places tool allows the users to save locations and set them as home, work or favorites and it will sync with Cortana, personal assistant created by Microsoft, and the Windows Maps app as well. The users can share route plans too.