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WTF? Garmin Connect now using Microsoft Bing Maps


philberesford's picture

By philberesford - Posted on 24 November 2010

I feel like I've been slapped in the face. When did this happen? Bing maps are horrible, It's like opening your present at Christmas and getting ... dog poo.

Bring back Google maps!

Logan's picture

Personally it doesnt bother me to much, tend to have a decent idea of where I have ridden.

PIVOT MACH 5's picture

You just cracked me up! I don't use a garmin but i use google maps and even i hate bing. Stupid name trying to be catchy and get some of the market.

Chuck's picture

Google just did an update locally and the mapping around here is poor. I tried using the Google maps on my Android phone and it's not the best. Must say, Bing Maps aren't any better or worse. Open Street Map(or a fork) will be the better option in the next couple of years and in many areas far better now.

Use this website to compare OSM and Google.
http://sautter.com/map/
Click on the + symbol on the top left to change map types and to disable the Hillshading(the pink layer).

Or
http://tools.geofabrik.de/mc/?mt0=mapnik&mt1=tah...

Flynny's picture

Bring back motionsbased. Garmin connect sucks on so many levels

Rob's picture

Hmmmm... I'm not convinced about OSM. Sure, it's nice that the public has the ability to draw on the maps, but that is very dangerous. Users treat these sites as 'official' so when there is no authorative source of truth that's an issue.

Couple of points spring to mind: looking at Red Hill, it seems someone posted parts from the original KML produced for NoBMoB on there - clearly not official in any way. Then look above, the boundaries for Ku-ring-gai National Park are wrong or missing. Ooops!

On the subject of Garmin using Bing... yeah, not as pretty as Google, but whatever. You can always use Google to look with a URL like this:

http://maps.google.com.au/?q=http://connect.garmin.com/proxy/activity-service-1.1/gpx/activity/55317026?full=true

Put in the correct 'activity' number of course

You can even embed these if you know what you are doing...


View Larger Map

Maybe I should change our Garmin Connect embedding to use stuff like that instead of their Bing stuff? ;)

Brian's picture

I just use garmin connect to share a profile. SportTracks is way better.

philberesford's picture

I found MB to be waaaaay too slow and flaky. Great once it was working though.
GC certainly isn't perfect either and has it fair share of flaws. The plugin for Mac is a bit hit-n-miss. It connects only when it feels the time is right

MarkkyMarkk's picture

Certainly Rob, OSM is in no way an official map, but what is?
Would you rely on Google as an official source of information?
They have consistently shown my street with the wrong name & then this:
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news...

CookPassBartridge's picture

"...It's like opening your present at Christmas and getting ... dog poo. "

Don't joke about that Phil... That happened to me once... man my family was mean...

philberesford's picture

Now we have a choice of Bing or Google Smiling

ChopStiR's picture

I made the switch as soon as i saw the option.

Rob's picture

Maybe it's something to do with this?

BBC are reporting sites with 25,000 map requests or more now have to pay. Won't affect many, but Garmin Connect is a very big site so you can imagine they would have to pay.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15523050

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