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The new UK Bing Maps sport an impressive array of features. You can check the entire list in detail here, but here are the highlights: redesigned navigation, Ordnance Survey Maps (great for outdoorspeople), Tube Maps, nearby stations and POIs, walking directions and user contributions.
As far as the search portion of Bing UK goes, it sports visual search, more instant answers (ask a direct question, such as "How is Liverpool doing in the Premiership?", and get an instant answer), real-time Twitter search, and shopping search (courtesy of Ciao UK). And yes, those background images will now be UK-specific.