Hacking on Empty

I punch “28th and Sanchez” into Google. Google recognizes this as a possible address, searches its database nearby to wherever it thinks I am located, and shows a small map at the top of the search results. If I click on the map or enter the same query directly into Google Maps then it will go directly to a map of the intersection it thinks I want. It was correct and my desire was satisfied simply and easily.

Try the same thing with Bing (I actually tried Bing first.) Bing doesn’t recognize that it is an intersection and displays no map in the search results. No problem, I’ll click the “Maps” link at the top. Bing Maps doesn’t know what I’m talking about. On the left you can see that there are two query fields labeled “Business name or category (optional)” and “Location:” Can you guess which one was prefilled with my query from the search engine? A minor irritation, I think, I’ll just cut/paste the intersection into the location field. Nope, Bing Maps still doesn’t have any idea what I’m looking for. Add “, San Francisco CA” and it finally shows me the map I want.

If you try to enter a street address without a city or state Bing appears to return the first result it finds. So entering some addresses nearby to me here in San Francisco yielded results in Lubbock TX and Germany. Seriously, when I entered the address of the building I’m sitting in, Bing did not find any exact matches and a map of the Eastern hemisphere was displayed with pin indicating the location of what it thought was the best match, some place in Germany with a name that isn’t even close to my query.

Did it never occur to the Bing team that people searching the map without specifying a city/state want the match closest to their location? That I might want to enter an intersection like I would a simple street address? Did the product manager never try entering an address or intersection without specifying the city or did they think those results were acceptable?