Google Maps V3 vs Bing Maps 7


April 27, 2011

I really, really hate poorly contrived performance comparisons, which proliferate everywhere, with bad data.

Case in point.  The new Bing Map 7’s  claim to fame (along with a completely changed API) is a performance boost of over 300% from Bing Map 6.3.  Now, that’s a great improvement, and I’m happy to see it.  However, when someone starts to compare it to Google Maps V3 performance, using a poorly implemented example, I have to take exception.

http://www.earthware.co.uk/blog/index.php/2011/02/ajax-mapping-apis-google-maps-vs-bing-maps-update-pushpin-display-performance/comment-page-1/#comment-7982

Look at those examples for adding 1000 markers.  Outrageous.  Look how slow Google Maps is!  Or is it?  Anyone who actually uses Google Maps API to add many markers to a map, knows that you should be using MarkerManager.

http://google-maps-utility-library-v3.googlecode.com/svn/tags/markermanager/1.0/docs/examples.html

If you download the examples from Earthware, and add a MarkerManager to the Google Maps V3 version, suddenly the Google Maps version totally outperforms Bing Maps.  Surprise.

<script type=”text/javascript”

src=”markermanager.js”

</script>

var markers = [];

        for (i = 0; i < num; i++) {

            var marker = new google.maps.Marker({

                position: new google.maps.LatLng(southWest.lat() + latSpan * Math.random(), southWest.lng() + lngSpan * Math.random())

            });

            markers.push(marker);

        }

mgr = new MarkerManager(map);

google.maps.event.addListener(mgr, ‘loaded’, function(){

mgr.addMarkers(markers,5);

mgr.refresh();

});

Don’t ever take anyone’s blog as gospel truth.  Use your brain, and test it yourself.