As a geography and map freak, I loved loved loved Birds Eye views in Microsoft’s Bing Maps. Birds Eye’s advantages over Google’s and Apple’s satellite views were enormous, because all the imagery was shot from airplanes flying at low altitudes, rather than from a hundred miles up in space. Among other cool things, you could rotate your view, which was angled at 45° off vertical.
Well, Microsoft killed it. I don’t care about the reasons, which you can find if you dig around. I just care that one more thing I loved on the Web is gone.
Here is one site that depended on Birds Eye and is now stuck with a bunch of thumbnails: headstone markers of what was once alive. I’d link to more info, but I’d rather mourn.
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