Looking for the best cup of joe in the neighborhood? Urban Mapping's neighborhood boundary data enables Bing to provide contextually aware services that resonate with users and maximize ad potential.
Challenge
Neighborhoods are effective at communicating informally-defined spaces. They more accurately reflect how people think about their surroundings than postal codes and other administrative boundaries. As an industry-leading search and mapping engine where mobile matters, Microsoft knew neighborhood boundary data would be key to providing contextually-aware services that resonate with users and maximize ad potential. Microsoft needed top quality, thoroughly researched and reliable data from a trusted source that was scalable, continually updated and easy to integrate with Bing's services.
Solution
Urban Mapping was the industry's first and market-leading provider of neighborhood boundaries. Since 2006, the company has sourced, curated and maintained global coverage by geographically encoding the boundaries of thousands of neighborhoods with precise latitude and longitude. At the same time, Urban Mapping's patent-pending Smart Boundary technology gives boundaries the flexibility to capture the natural variance in human perception of informally-defined spaces. Microsoft recognized Urban Mapping's expertise and incorporated Urban Mapping Neighborhoods into Bing's services.
"Urban Mapping gets hyperlocal," said Neil Black, Principal Program Manager Lead for Bing Maps. "Their neighborhood data is creatively-designed and expertlyexecuted, and essential for the success of our local program."
Microsoft Bing is now a top provider of local content with a smart strategy focused on categories that help people make complex decisions on a daily basis. Bing has been prolific in its development of local search tools, apps driven by the Bing Maps platform and mobile services for onthe-go users. Urban Mapping Neighborhoods helps them deliver these services in a meaningful way.
