Earlier this morning Microsoft outlined some of the major new changes coming to Bing, including the introduction of the new Bing Maps (you can see our full coverage here ). A few minutes ago, the Bing Maps Beta went live for everyone, bringing with it a number of innovative new features sure to keep the Google Maps team on their toes. You can try out the new beta here . But there's one catch: in order to tap into the site's new features, you're going to have to have Microsoft's Silverlight installed. There are a number of new things to check out here. First, there's Streetside, Bing's answer to Google Street View. The controls are nearly identical to Street View, allowing you to virtually stroll down the road and pan around to look at the buildings you're passing. But Bing is doing some innovative things here. In Google Maps, when you leave one area and walk down the street to another, the images blur together for a moment in a sort of "light speed" effect. Bing is taking a different approach: it's actually building 3D models based on its images, so you can smoothly walk down the street, at least in theory.