back to article Bing Maps COCKUP: Oracle UK HQ is 'Elvis Impersonators' joint

Microsoft have matched Apple in the cartographic cockup stakes after a series of risible errors on Bing Maps. A Reg reader wrote in to tell us that Oracle's UK HQ had been labelled "Elvis Impersonators UK & Worldwide". Microsoft's own UK base was dubbed "Thames Valley Park Nursery". Reader Martin wrote in with the tip. He …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Your MS link didn't work for me, but they do operate a nursery from one of their buildings: http://reading.cylex-uk.co.uk/company/thames-valley-park-nursery-17899668.html

    1. Ralph B

      I came to say the same thing. There certainly is (or was) a nursery on the Microsoft campus in Reading. Google Maps lists it too, albeit at a slightly different location.

      So, it's hardly a "howler", unless you are referring to the toddlers themselves.

  2. Anonymous IV
    Joke

    Have you spotted any Bing howlers?

    Its existence?

    1. HipposRule

      Re: Have you spotted any Bing howlers?

      At least you can get the maps in OS format which can be really handy

      1. VinceH

        Re: Have you spotted any Bing howlers?

        "At least you can get the maps in OS format which can be really handy"

        Ooh, I hadn't noticed that before - that is indeed handy.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What error?

    It has long been known that all Oracle sales rep are Elvis Clones !

    As far as Microsoft I'm not sure I see the connection between a Bulgarian fabric softener manufacturer and a nursery....

  4. Ralph B

    Elvis Lives?

    You don't suppose Oracle are planning to capture all the open-source Elvises (Elvii?) and then slowly suffocate them all?

    (Fork 'em, I say!)

  5. Mondo the Magnificent

    That confirms it...

    Larry Ellison is the king!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Go

      Re: That confirms it...

      Correction for you

      "Larry Ellison is the king!"

      to

      Larry Ellison is Ming!

  6. returnmyjedi

    Apple moved the town of Leamington Spa fifty miles east, so I'm not entirely convinced mislabelling a building is quite in the same league.

    1. Robert Grant

      Agreed :)

    2. DJV Silver badge
      Joke

      Mislabelling

      They also mislabelled Windows 8 as an operating system...

      1. cordwainer 1
        Thumb Up

        Re: Mislabelling

        Oh, BraVO!

  7. Steve Gill

    Sounds like inside jokes to me, especially given the love between Microsoft and Oracle in the Reading-Bracknell area

  8. cambsukguy

    The Bing maps preview app I downloaded seems to now have 3D city views which I then realised were the ones I saw on HERE maps previously.

    They added nice tilt/rotate touch actions with on-screen widgets too.

    But still, it is the OS maps integration that means I always go there first; that it is not Google is just a bonus.

  9. Alan Denman

    Bing for OS

    As said Bing is great for OS maps.

    Now where is that Sustrans cycle layer?

    Come on Sustrans, get charitable.

  10. tony2heads
    Joke

    Elvis impersonators

    Surely Oracle HQ should be 'Heartbreak Hotel'

    But I would like from them: A little less conversation and a lot more action

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Bing has maps?

    Until I read the posts above I hadn't realised anyone actually used Bing.

    Mea Culpa.

    After I posted that I actually looked at Bing's maps.

    It's reallly quite good.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Bing Maps Too Subpar For Me

    I have a Lumia 900, and Bing Maps (U.S.A.) is one of the main reasons I can't wait to switch phones to another mobile OS. I've been misdirected too many times. It's database of local addresses is either outdated (too many closed/moved businesses) or lacking entirely compared to Google. I find it's direction finding algorithms inconsistent. Just yesterday, it tried to direct me down a street with bumper-to-bumper traffic as far as I could see. (It usually seems to take traffic into account.) It once wanted me to drive several miles West, do an 180 degree turn, drive several miles East back to my starting point and then keep going East, where I should have gone in the first place. It once took me miles from my destination (an empty lot - I'm not kidding!) when I was trying to find a movie theater. Those stand out in my memory. Usually, if there's a problem, it just gets me close and then gives up. I have to budget extra time because of this app, because it's made me late a few times! Majority of the times, it's accurate, but it's bad when I don't trust where my mapping app is going to take me every time I launch it.

    I've tried Nokia's Maps/HERE but found similar deficiencies. It also definitely doesn't rate at par with Google's offering. I'm so tired of my wife pulling out her iPhone, launching Google Maps, and having multiple routes to choose from, often before Microsoft's Map app gives me just one!

    I understand nothing out there is perfect, but I have to trust the results, and I've lost faith in the product. (That includes both Microsoft's and Nokia's maps.) I'm counting the days until I can switch!! (Haven't decided on iOS or Android.)

    ps - Overall, Windows Phone has been VERY stable - very few crashes. I think Microsoft is going in the right direction with the core OS. Not bashing the phone itself, just one of the big supporting apps, which is why be buy these things in the first place, isn't it??

  13. BoldMan

    Good joke but I suspect this is a crowd sourcing joke rather than Bing maps being totally useless. Yes there is a nursery on the Thames Valley Park site but it isn't the Microsoft office as it is labelled

    Made me smile anyway!

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    IBM Hursley is listed as Natwest: http://binged.it/1f9KkSF there used to be a Natwest on site but there hasn't been for more than 4 years now.

  15. GitMeMyShootinIrons

    Oracle - the home of Elvis?

    Being "The Devil in Disguise", a visit to them is like going to "Heartbreak Hotel". The sales folk are "Stuck on you" and in need of "A Big Hunk o' Love". They demand you "Surrender" and proclaim "It's now or never".

    Something goes wrong, so you stroke your "Good luck charm" and ring support, asking them to "Love me Tender", but end up begging "Don't be Cruel". Their "Suspicious Minds" are "Too Much" and leave you "All shook up", so you go all "Moody Blue" and "Return to Sender".

    Ultimately Oracle - "You're the Devil in Disguise"

  16. phands

    No one uses bing anyway....who cares

    Since day 1, bing has lost money for microsoft, because no one uses it. Who cares if the maps are wrong?

  17. fch
    Headmaster

    Dyslexia ...

    makes Evils into Elvis. No doubt Oracle impersonates one or the other.

    I need Friday-beer-drinking-grammar-nazi combi icon.

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