In a line of pretty smart moves by Microsoft recently, the company announced that it’s partnered with Foursquare to overlay real-time results in its Bing mapping solution.
The partnership, which so far isn’t exclusive to Bing, brings real time data from Foursquare into the Silverlight-based maps experience to give customers “a real time sense of what’s going on as they plan activities in their own neighborhoods or while on the road.”
Users will be able to see who has unlocked specific badges, where and who has been crowned mayor of certain locations and more- making it easier to explore any city in the world as if you were a local.
“Let’s say you’re travelling to New York City for the week, but you don’t know what’s hot in Greenwich Village. Selecting the foursquare Map App in Bing Maps, and zooming into Greenwich Village will get you tips that show you what locals are saying about the hot spots in that area,” Microsoft explains in the announcement.
It was a good idea for Microsoft to make this move before Google and Yahoo do, hopefully wooing some die-hard Foursquare users, but Google and Yahoo will undoubtedly follow suit- with Google likely planning its integration after it sees how Bing and Yahoo do it.
On the other hand, Google wants to have its own Foursquare-esque solution instead of simply coat-tailing on its success. Either way, Bing is the only game in town that offers real-time Foursquare updates at the moment, and for now, it has the upper hand.
