At first glance, it looks like some kind of wacky Internet promotion for Canadian tourism.
“Explore Canada,” the banner urges, adorned by a Canadian flag logo. Underneath, the website suggests five “places of interest” to check out, with destinations that range from the expected (Jasper National Park) to the unexpected (the Alberta oil sands).
It recommends businesses too: Tim Hortons for Vancouverites, TD Bank for Torontonians, and Petro-Canada for Haligonians.
Right. So what exactly is Explore Canada?
Contrary to appearances, it's not a travel site. It's the welcome pane for Bing Maps, a search engine by Microsoft launched in early June as a competitor to Google Maps.
But with its Canadian flag logo and “Explore Canada” tagline, the site could easily pass as something sponsored by a tourism board.
“This, to me, looks like possibly it's to do with the Canadian Tourism Commission,” surmised Christopher Lam, the director of e-marketing with Travel Alberta. He said the tagline is even similar to that of the CTC: “Keep exploring.”
But Mr. Lam said the site, with its odd assortment of destinations – which include the Alberta oil sands, Jasper National Park, Calgary, Collingwood, Ont., and B.C.'s Queen Charlotte Islands – is missing some of the hot spots most tourism boards would have in their top five.
And clearly, no one is marketing the oil sands as one of Canada's top tourist attractions.
“Given some of the titles in this, like oil sands in Alberta, it wouldn't be something [the CTC] would focus on,” Mr. Lam said.
“Yeah, it could be seen as a tourism-related thing, but as I read through the content, it clearly isn't.”
Stacey Jarvis with Microsoft Canada says the Explore Canada section is simply a way of getting people acquainted with Bing Maps, which is still getting off the ground.
Each suggested location or business links to a Bing-generated map. If someone were to click on the Alberta oil sands link, for example, they would be taken to an aerial view of Fort MacKay, Alta.
As for the seemingly haphazardly compiled list of recommended destinations, they do have one thing in common: All were among the most popular search items during the months of May and June.
“Calgary was one of the top ones because the Calgary Stampede was on,” Ms. Jarvis said. “Collingwood has become increasingly more popular because people are looking for beaches.”
The businesses listed were among the 20 most frequently searched brands in Canada.
So according to Microsoft's query data, this would mean that Haligonians searched Petro-Canada more than other Canadians did, and Torontonians were “Binging” TD Bank with the most frequency.
As for Starbucks, Ottawa claimed the most searches in Canada – not Vancouver, typically regarded as the capital of Starbucks Nation north.
Rather, Vancouverites led the pack when it came to searching for a different kind of coffee company: Tim Hortons.
