Fewer and fewer drivers use traditional fold-out maps in the car. Instead, they simply print out directions for where they’re heading from one of the popular mapping sites on the Web.
One such site, MapQuest, a subsidiary of America Online at www.MapQuest.com, is a favorite. Its straightforward approach asks you to enter “start” and “end” points for your trip, and selecting “Get Directions” completes your navigational duties. Numbered instructions, a map and an estimated total time and distance for the trip are retrieved to help you along your journey. Yahoo also built a following with a similar plain mapping site.
But, since Google entered the category with a flashy new type of mapping service earlier this year, competition has heated up. All of the big portals are looking to build their local search businesses, which they see as a golden opportunity for ad sales and other revenue. And they have come to see their mapping functions as a gateway to these local search databases, which make it easy to find businesses and services in the areas people want to map.
This week, my assistant Katie Boehret and I tested the old reliable, MapQuest, against Google Local, maps.google.com, and a new, enhanced version of Yahoo Maps, maps.yahoo.com/beta.
These newer sites are free, like MapQuest, but they offer some fancy features, such as the ability to pan across a map simply by moving your mouse’s cursor, or zooming in or out on a location quickly.
Overall, we concluded that, for the sake of getting where you’re going with the most-thorough directions, MapQuest still does the best job, with the most accurate directions. But Yahoo has a multipoint routing feature that’s valuable.
Last weekend, Katie traveled a little more than three hours from Washington, D.C., to Bethany Beach, Del., and used three sets of directions from MapQuest, Google Local and Yahoo Maps. MapQuest’s time estimate of two hours and 45 minutes was too optimistic, but Google and Yahoo each estimated three hours and 12 minutes, which was just about right.
Though different trips might have different results, Katie noticed that in more than one case Yahoo and Google each suggested taking smaller, less popular roads instead of staying on the state routes as MapQuest suggested. Katie went with MapQuest instead to avoid reading more street signs – especially at night in rural areas.
The printouts from each site also made a difference. MapQuest uses capitalized letters for street names and directions, such as, “Turn RIGHT onto OCEAN VIEW PKWY,” and prints the mileage for each line of directions aligned on the right side of the page, making it easy to find how far you must travel for each step. The mileage estimates on Yahoo and Google were only distinguished with bold type at the end of each sentence of directions. These were harder to find, especially in a tense situation, Katie found out.
Google starts you out in familiar territory – the box in which you enter a location, business or directional instructions looks just like the regular Google search box. By default, the entered data searches a map of the United States. If you’d rather select the “Search Businesses” option on the right, you can enter the appropriate “what” (Chinese food, for example) and “where” (Washington, D.C.).
A third option on the right, “Get Directions,” brings up two boxes for the start and end addresses. Here, in between the two boxes, is a simple set of switch arrows; you can easily click those arrows and save time getting a reverse route (also offered at MapQuest and Yahoo) or move the destination address over to be the next starting point. But Google Local doesn’t offer multipoint routing; currently you can only map out a route with one destination point at a time.
Google Local’s most unusual features are its map views – including satellite and hybrid images of the streets. Satellite views are photos of the location taken by actual satellites; hybrid images are the same satellite views of the streets with typed labels, like regular maps. These satellite views are fun to see, but for the most part, don’t help all that much when you’re driving.
Yahoo’s multipoint routing is a serious strong point for the new site. It allows you to map a route to multiple, succeeding destinations. To enter more than one destination on Google Local or MapQuest, you have to restart your direction search, retrieving a different map for each leg, which is time-consuming and frustrating.
Another smart feature that Yahoo uses is its mini map – a collapsible map in the top right corner of each larger map that uses a gray box to highlight the focus area. You can drag this gray box around within the mini map, which saves you from panning all over the larger map. Google doesn’t offer such an option.
All three mapping services offer to find businesses and restaurants near your locations, but Google and Yahoo use their already established search engines to offer more information about those locations.
Google lacks a handy feature of MapQuest and Yahoo – the ability to manually save a list of often-used destinations so you can call them up quickly again.
Google and Yahoo don’t show any ads on their sites, nor do they print out ads on their printed directions. MapQuest’s site has ads, and it prints one ad out with each set of directions.
If you’re satisfied with the MapQuest experience, stick with its smart printouts and accurate directions. Yahoo’s multipoint feature might come in handy for errand-filled Saturdays, and panning around your area on Yahoo or Google is helpful, in terms of getting a better overall sense of where you are. But these two new sites need to offer better directions and better print-outs before we’ll give up on MapQuest.
Walter Mossberg writes about personal technology for The Wall Street Journal.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
