Newton, Mass. based EveryScape has partnered with Bing today to provide immersive imagery for businesses through it’s local search results. Their proprietary technology allows you to virtually walk around in the restaurant or small business as if they were actually there.
The announcement comes as part of the Bing Search Summit taking place today. It is Bing’s latest move to catch up to current search leader Google. This ability to view the inside of buildings is definitely one step up from Google Maps.
“Providing users with the most compelling and useful content is the cornerstone of Bing; it’s key to helping people make more informed and faster decisions,” said David Gedye, principal program manager of Bing Maps for Microsoft. “The new Interior Views feature in Bing uses EveryScape’s 3D experiences of local businesses to help users to answer the all-important question of whether this business is worth their time.”
The company has also built an iPhone application – EveryScape Eats – which allows you to virtually tour restaurants prior to visiting them.
Everyscape is led by CEO Jim Schoonmaker and has received a total of $17.5M since 2005, with participating investors including New Atlantic Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Lanchpad Venture Group, Dace Ventures, and most recently SK Telecom Americas. The company, which creates visual guides for local search, provides the visual local search technology behind Microsoft’s Bing Maps, Yahoo! Travel, and Starcite. Everyscape was founded in 2002 by MIT graduate Mok Oh.
“Local search is inherently personal and subjective. The problem of where to take your boss to dinner is not easily solved by a simple list of nearby restaurants,” said Jim Schoonmaker, CEO of EveryScape. “EveryScape’s mission is to enable consumers to have a deeper understanding of a local business, allowing them to form their own opinion about the business, rather than just relying on the opinions of others. Our immersive imagery mimics the real-world retail presence for a business, which answers a whole new range of questions that text and flat imagery alone cannot.”
Check out this video to see how cool EveryScape’s technology is:
To learn more about EveryScape Eats! Boston and EveryScape’s other offerings, be sure to follow EveryScape on Twitter.
