Bing Mapbuilder

Bing Map builder is an OpenStreetMap-editor maintained by Microsoft. As of 2023, it consisted of a heavily modified fork of the iD-editor. As of 2023, it is available to make changes worldwide by visiting the the website. Alternatively, users of Bing Maps will see an 'Edit Maps' button when browsing Australia.

A contributor can login straight in the Map Builder using a Microsoft account. They are greeted by a tutorial, after which they can add roads, buildings or waterbodies. Editing them is not possible as of february 2023 - one can change the geometry in the editor, but not press the save button.

This editor has built-in support for sending and receiving messages and changeset messages.

Controversies

Even though the website is called Bing Map Builder, it edits OpenStreetMap. Furthermore, other aspects have been causes of controversy within the community.

Originally, all edits by all users were uploaded to OSM using a single puppet account, until this account got blocked by the DWG after a decision by the board.

During SOTM 2022, a new version of Bing Mapbuilder was presented to the OSM-community. This version creates a pseudonymous OSM-account for every contributor, managed by Microsoft.

In february 2023, Pieter Vander Vennet wrote in his diary about problems with Map Builder.

Soon after, updates from Map Builder were not uploaded to OSM directly, as noted in a followup diary entry. Soon after, a comment indicated that a Microsoft employee uploaded their changes in this changeset