Bing has made several search specific improvements to the Bing Maps Preview, that is currently in beta.

Bing announced that they have made significant search improvements to the new Bing Maps Preview, Bing’s new enhanced mapping upgrade.

The search improvements include making search always available when you need it with a consistent search bar. Higher quality results and information based on your search are directly displayed in the maps. Autosuggestions are also improved, and much more. Here are some of those new and improved search features in the Bing Maps Preview.

The consistent search bar at the top of Bing Maps:

You’ll have a richer search results experience for searches on businesses, places and attractions. The left is the old experience, the right is the new experience.

Autosuggest is improved for mapping by adding waypoints for directions, displaying icons for suggestions to better identify what they are, and including category searches in the list of suggestions:

You’ll see more results on the map, with smaller points on the map alongside the larger points associated with the results card, and clicking or tapping on them will display additional details about them:

Here are some additional search features in the Bing Maps Preview:

• Search in directions waypoints by typing something into a waypoint, and search will be used to find a matching location.
• Your query can ask for directions and traffic search. For example, you can even specify the mode of transport by adding it to the end “directions from Seattle to Portland by transit.” If you want to see what traffic is like, you can just type in “traffic in Portland” to enable traffic mode on the map.
• Searching along the route for things of interest close to a route, for example, restaurants and gas stations.
• Now when you search for a place on bing.com and navigate to Bing Maps Preview, the same place will show up in both locations.