King of Bing

by KUMIKO YAMAZAKI on August 24, 2010 • apps bing • COMMENT

In the age where everyone strives to become the mayor (Foursquare) or duke/duchess (Yelp) of a location, Bing was going to crown some fine developer the King of Bing.

If you haven’t heard of the King of Bing Maps Challenge, it was just the most recent of the many successful app contests being held. Winners receive a small amount of cash and some street cred, and the organizers receive a gallery full of apps created by the community in return. Everybody wins!

This year’s King of Bing was Ricky Brundritt with his Taxi Fare Calculator. This app estimates the total fare for most U.S. cities and 18 additional international cities to help residents, tourists, and businessmen navigate around.

My favorite, however, was Ricky’s Data Viewer – another app by Ricky Brundritt. It integrates GeoRSS feeds into the app and also allows you to overlay shapefiles on top of Bing.

For example, if you wished to view the latest earthquakes as published by the USGS, you would visit the USGS Earthquakes Hazards Program and download their Atom XML Feed. Select the GeoRSS file through the app and you’re done!