Photo: Bing maps/Google maps screenshot
The drivers of the Google street-mapping cars are probably the people who have seen some of the weirdest things in the world. You know how some individuals like to dress up in bizarre costumes and run after professional cyclists while they're competing, just for a few seconds of fame?
Well, you can imagine these guys wouldn't skip on the opportunity to have their picture taken and uploaded online for a few years, so chasing the Google street view car while dressed up became a favorite pastime for some.
However, grown men in chicken suits aren't the only interesting things you can come across if you browse through the endless frames of Google's wonderful service. For instance, you can spot people stealing cars, cyclists who are about to fall over and all kinds of stuff that make up what we all call life.
Do you know what else is also part of life? Bing is. That's right, the surname made famous by Matthey Perry's character on Friends is also the name of a lesser-known search engine and a matching mapping service run by a not so lesser known company called Microsoft.
Since Google has no reason to fear losing supremacy in the mapping business to Microsoft until the software giant finds a way to make a decent entry on the hand-held devices market, you can't really say the two companies are at war, but competition is still competition.
So imagine the funny/awkward moment when two of the cars that make street view possible for both Google and Bing maps ran past each other in Plymouth, Minnesota. This encounter means that until Google and Bing make a rerun on Glacier Lane North, there's a picture of a Bing Toyota RAV4 in Google's version and one of a Google Subaru Impreza in Bing's.
Now it's easy to let your imagination run wild, find a use for all those hours spent playing GTA V and think of the two starting to shoot each other while both drivers yelling "there can be only one." But if you continue to follow Google's car version, you'll see the black Toyota actually appears to make a sudden U-turn, as if giving chase.
Sadly, the shootout that would have made for the best Google/Bing street view image ever does not happen, and the RAV4 can be seen continuing on its way. They both live to fight another day. Or, you know, to photograph another street.
However, grown men in chicken suits aren't the only interesting things you can come across if you browse through the endless frames of Google's wonderful service. For instance, you can spot people stealing cars, cyclists who are about to fall over and all kinds of stuff that make up what we all call life.
Do you know what else is also part of life? Bing is. That's right, the surname made famous by Matthey Perry's character on Friends is also the name of a lesser-known search engine and a matching mapping service run by a not so lesser known company called Microsoft.
Since Google has no reason to fear losing supremacy in the mapping business to Microsoft until the software giant finds a way to make a decent entry on the hand-held devices market, you can't really say the two companies are at war, but competition is still competition.
So imagine the funny/awkward moment when two of the cars that make street view possible for both Google and Bing maps ran past each other in Plymouth, Minnesota. This encounter means that until Google and Bing make a rerun on Glacier Lane North, there's a picture of a Bing Toyota RAV4 in Google's version and one of a Google Subaru Impreza in Bing's.
Now it's easy to let your imagination run wild, find a use for all those hours spent playing GTA V and think of the two starting to shoot each other while both drivers yelling "there can be only one." But if you continue to follow Google's car version, you'll see the black Toyota actually appears to make a sudden U-turn, as if giving chase.
Sadly, the shootout that would have made for the best Google/Bing street view image ever does not happen, and the RAV4 can be seen continuing on its way. They both live to fight another day. Or, you know, to photograph another street.
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