Local Scout - Killer feature!

[Exomondo]

Ok so this has become my favorite feature, and not just because while I was out to dinner it suggested afterwards I go to a Museum and a Strip Club

In fact I was off skiing and staying on the mountain and need some stuff from the supermarket but by the time I got to the town at the base of the mountain it was 7:00pm and the supermarket was closed. No matter, even in rural areas local scout comes to the rescue showing me that 17km away was another supermarket, since it also gave me the phone number i called them and they were open for another 2 hours so I got the directions using Bing maps and got what I needed
This isn't an isolated incident either, local scout has been useful more times than i can remember.

Point is I'm not really one for apps so I've never had platform lock-in, sure if i were an iOS user and had a bunch of apps i wouldn't be happy about abandoning them to switch platforms, same goes for Android. So for me to stay with a platform it has to be the OS that provides the killer feature, something so useful that if i didn't have an equivalent it would really have a negative impact. For me WP7 has Local Scout and it's brilliant and I think it's got me hooked!

 

[bear_lx]

so do you use yelp, or poynt, or where anymore?

 

[Exomondo]

Nope, it's the integrated nature of Local Scout that I think makes it so good, it's all just so seamless to use. That said the AR in Poynt is pretty neat

 

[Reflexx]

Yelp is still good for leaving reviews. Local Scout doesn't let you do that. I guess because it's just aggregating data from multiple sources.

 

[TheWeeBear]

In my location Local Scout info is way out of date, it has so many places listed that have changed names or even closed down.

It's just needing it's info overhauled and it will be much more reliable.

 

[bear_lx]

ive been using where because it seems to be more updated than yelp or poynt... but the last time i used it , it seemed to be outdated to. i think it just depends on the location at any given time, one may be better than the other

 

[Reflexx]

I wonder if it will start liking with Yelp after Yelp eventually makes their Mango update.

 

[Pete C]

In Downtown Orlando, Local Scout is a complete and utter joke. It has stuff listed here that has been closed for over a decade. I mean, I know Bing can't be on top of everything, but this is ridiculous. Hardly anything in here is open. Not only that, there are so many great places that have opened in the last 10 years and none of them are here. Very unimpressed.

Yelp, to me, is the best resource for places to eat on the internet. If MS has any clue, they will start using it for Bing recommendations. As it stands, Bing is pretty horrible at this.

 

[HeyCori]

Ok so this has become my favorite feature, and not just because while I was out to dinner it suggested afterwards I go to a Museum and a Strip Club

In fact I was off skiing and staying on the mountain and need some stuff from the supermarket but by the time I got to the town at the base of the mountain it was 7:00pm and the supermarket was closed. No matter, even in rural areas local scout comes to the rescue showing me that 17km away was another supermarket, since it also gave me the phone number i called them and they were open for another 2 hours so I got the directions using Bing maps and got what I needed
This isn't an isolated incident either, local scout has been useful more times than i can remember.

Point is I'm not really one for apps so I've never had platform lock-in, sure if i were an iOS user and had a bunch of apps i wouldn't be happy about abandoning them to switch platforms, same goes for Android. So for me to stay with a platform it has to be the OS that provides the killer feature, something so useful that if i didn't have an equivalent it would really have a negative impact. For me WP7 has Local Scout and it's brilliant and I think it's got me hooked!

So did you go to the strip club or not?

 

[Wyn6]

Local Scout in Dallas is quite useful. However, let me suggest to all those that find Local Scout/Bing to be inaccurate, to help out a bit. If you find a particular business/location which has changed names, or is no longer located where Bing says it is, tap on it, then hit your ellipsis at the bottom and "suggest changes" pops up. This will allow you to edit the location's details and even tap on "Tell us this place is closed".

The more WP users we get entering accurate info, the more accurate these services will become.

 

[duke1231]

I didn't think it would have any info for here in Vermont, but it was really up to date, right down to trey anistasio, the lead singer from phish playing at a local bar in town. Even though the concert was going on right now, it wanted to know if I wanted to buy tickets This platform to me just keeps getting better and better. I think I know whats killing my battery. Me, I keep picking my focus up and scrolling all around, amazed at the smoothness.

 

[Winterfang]

Local scout suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucks in my country. The only events I see are all next year. ( See and do ) and there's not shop or highlights.

 

[Duvi]

It'll probably be awesome for me working in NYC

 

[Pete C]

Local Scout in Dallas is quite useful. However, let me suggest to all those that find Local Scout/Bing to be inaccurate, to help out a bit. If you find a particular business/location which has changed names, or is no longer located where Bing says it is, tap on it, then hit your ellipsis at the bottom and "suggest changes" pops up. This will allow you to edit the location's details and even tap on "Tell us this place is closed".

The more WP users we get entering accurate info, the more accurate these services will become.

Yeah, I've been doing that...hopefully it will bring some attention to the issue.

On the plus side, the events it shows are very up to date and accurate. Also, when I walked outside it did find a few more places that it didn't while I was in my building.

 

[markk308]

I'm in Canada and I know we have the local scout feature capability but I don't have it on my mango! What's up with that?

 

[TaliZorah]

As far as not using stand-alone and switching to integrated stuff I have to agree that scout made me uninstall yelp. Bing music search made me uninstall Shazzam.

 

[Dagolara]

I'm in Canada and I know we have the local scout feature capability but I don't have it on my mango! What's up with that?

You have the Pivot but not Local Scout yet.

Windows Phone 7 Feature Availability Matrix: The Mango Edition

 

[DontHate707]

Northern Cali its very useful I really like this feature too, the fact that you can now suggest changes should show us as a community we should be helping them improve the search results!

 

[HeyCori]

As far as not using stand-alone and switching to integrated stuff I have to agree that scout made me uninstall yelp. Bing music search made me uninstall Shazzam.

I agree. Bing Music search makes Shazam redundant. Plus Bing Music loads way faster than the Shazam app. Great for when I'm trying to catch the tail end of a song.

 

[TaliZorah]

I agree. Bing Music search makes Shazam redundant. Plus Bing Music loads way faster than the Shazam app. Great for when I'm trying to catch the tail end of a song.

Exactly. It even saves the history of your tags too. Shazaam isn't worth it at all anymore.