Best Online Mapping Site?

Definitely MapQuest by sakeneko · 2003-10-20 11:43 · Score: 4, Interesting

I've caught them in exactly two errors in four or five years of regular use. I'd gladly pay a monthly membership fee for them if they weren't a free service. (SHHHHH!!! Don't tell them.) ;>

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Catherine

Re:Definitely MapQuest by JoshRoss · 2003-10-20 11:50 · Score: 2, Informative

You can get great trip ticks through AAA.com, if you are a paying member.
Re:Definitely MapQuest by JoeBuck · 2003-10-20 12:08 · Score: 2, Funny

For their first couple of years of operation, their database apparently had El Camino Real through Silicon Valley marked as a freeway. The driving directions would often tell you to stay on El Camino for about six miles, which considering there is an unsynchronized traffic light every three blocks, would get old fast. They appear to have fixed that problem some time ago, though.
Re:Definitely MapQuest by _Sprocket_ · 2003-10-20 13:22 · Score: 3, Informative

There's an El Camino Real Blvd in Clear Lake, Texas (just south of Houston) near JSC. I thought it was one of these local things, but if there's one in Silicon Valley I must be wrong.

Heh. It caught my attention when I moved from the Clear Lake area to the Bay Area. Bugged me, too.

El Camino Real is "The King's Road". There are actually two El Camino Real's - one in California and one in Texas. They are esentially the first interstate roadways in the New World. In both cases, they were built to link a series Spannish missions.

Following El Camino Real in California is a bit twisty, but one can piece it togeather. Texas' El Camino Real appears to be a bit simpler.

I would guess Clear Lake's road is simply a nod to this historic highway (located much further to the north).
Re:Definitely MapQuest by Graff · 2003-10-20 14:40 · Score: 2, Informative

El Camino Real is "The King's Road". There are actually two El Camino Real's - one in California and one in Texas. They are esentially the first interstate roadways in the New World. In both cases, they were built to link a series Spannish missions.

Well, depending on your definition of "first interstate highway" you would have to give that title to either the Boston Post Road or one of three roads built in the 1950's. The problem is that interstate roads didn't truly exist in a legal sense until the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956.

However, the Boston Post Road is widely recognized as the first major road in the United States, it has existed in one form or another since at least 1673. The El Camino Real, in comparison, has been around since about 1769.

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Sapere aude!

Seriously?! by NoData · 2003-10-20 11:43 · Score: 5, Funny

"I've been using MapQuest most of my life,

HOLY SHIT do I feel old.

Re:Seriously?! by Brandybuck · 2003-10-20 13:04 · Score: 2, Funny

Obviously, Slashdot is being inundated with twelve-year-olds!

Took you a while to figure it out, didn't it.

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Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!
Re:Seriously?! by Xerithane · 2003-10-20 13:38 · Score: 2, Funny

Sad thing is, they know a hell of a lot more about contemporary computers than I do.

Do you really need to know how to install a clear window in your chasis along with a strip of LEDs that flash according to the ambient music, though?

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Dacels Jewelers can't be trusted.

Sweet Spot by l810c · 2003-10-20 11:44 · Score: 4, Insightful

My main problem with ALL of the online mapping sites(And even Street & Trips and Rand McNally software) is they miss the Sweet Spot.

Somewhere between 2 and 3(or similar) on the zoom scales. 2 is just a tad too close, you click 3 and BAM you get the whole town. No neighborhood street names or other smaller details to help guide you on that last mile. Sure I could print directions or two maps, but it's still very annoying.

It would nice to be able to click on a particular street name or other landmark and have it 'stick' through zoom levels.

Yahoo(and Some of the others also wack out my neighborhood map. I live 2 houses from the county line and Yahoo breaks my street on the county line putting the ends 200 m apart. It would cause somebody using it for directions to my house to drive about a mile out of the way if coming from the other county.

Oh yeah, and why is the push pin marker on the wrong side of the street 80% of the time?

Re:Sweet Spot by cavemanf16 · 2003-10-20 12:32 · Score: 2, Interesting

That's because the mapping software can only distinguish down to the street level the approximate location of your house, I think. I do know that our software at work relies on 'Code 1' information when we mail out the stuff that we mail out, and without the full 11-digit zip code (that's right, 11 digits - the extra two digits at the very end indicate the exact location of the house, office, etc.) we have a harder time getting the stuff we mail to the correct place 100% of the time. And since we don't mail any kind of junk mail but rather sensitive info, it is VERY important that our mail goes to exactly the right place. I would think that might be quite a database hit to get it exact 100% of the time. More often than not, being on the right street is enough for a free service, if you think about it.
Re:Sweet Spot by mindriot · 2003-10-20 13:04 · Score: 2, Informative

There's a mapping service for Germany and most of Europe here. I like their interactive map display using a JAVA applet. Works well on Linux as on Windows, and allows you to zoom around very freely. Worked well for all routes I needed recently. Don't know about your other points of critique, but at least I find the interface usable enough to get good results, and mostly exact enough to get a decent enough description.
Re:Sweet Spot by GlassHeart · 2003-10-20 13:21 · Score: 2, Funny

why is the push pin marker on the wrong side of the street 80% of the time?
If this is true, just remember that the marker is always on the wrong side, and you'll get the right answer 80% of the time. I suspect your real problem is that they're wrong about 50% of the time.
Re:Sweet Spot by bedessen · 2003-10-20 13:38 · Score: 2, Interesting

WIth SVG maturing, I wonder when we're going to get maps that aren't these stupid images. I want a vector map that I can pan and zoom... but it should be smart enough to only download the data that it needs for any given display. And it should be smart enough to cull enough details when I zoom out that I can get a sufficient overview of the layout of a town without downloading e.g. every street name. I'd think this would eventually be easier on the back-end, as it wouldn't have to generate all those stupid images. Although, they're probably statically generated and so the back-end just fetches the corresponding grid location at the requested zoom level. But still, that sounds like a real nightmare to maintain.

I'm guessing that we'll never really see what I described above, due to the fear of someone being able to steal all their precious cartographic data. With images, you'd have to have some pretty good algorithms if you wanted to reconstruct useful vector data. But if the whole thing is native vectors, the bad guy could conceivably steal the entire database (with some clever scripts) and setup their own business. I foresee some really stinky Adobe plug-in with horrible DRM... sigh.

Maps for walking routes? by bokelley · 2003-10-20 11:44 · Score: 5, Interesting

Something I have been looking for is a mapping site that will let me plot a route - say from 42nd and Madison to 14th and 6th - as I would walk it, not as a car would have to drive it (that is, ignore one way streets and such). Generally, because I want to find out how far I have to walk to get to a meeting or something.

Extra credit would be if I could draw a diagonal line through a park (since I can cut through). Or if it estimated walking time the way it done driving time.

Any ideas?

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warning: epoll_wait is not implemented and will always fail

Re:Maps for walking routes? by Pathwalker · 2003-10-20 11:48 · Score: 2, Informative

maporama lets you do that, at least for the UK.

It gives 3 route planning choices - by foot, by foot and subway, and by car.

Yahoo maps gives terrible directions. by stephen_pigg · 2003-10-20 11:46 · Score: 2, Interesting

From personal experience on the west coast and midwest, I can say that I will never use Yahoo maps again. The third time getting lost did it for me. Mapquest has not let me down yet.

My exhaustive test!! by jimson · 2003-10-20 11:46 · Score: 2, Funny

I mapped out a route from Here to Timbuktu and Mapquest came out with the shortest route, therefore I conclude that Mapquest is better. QED

Yahoo++ || --Mapquest by SeanTobin · 2003-10-20 11:47 · Score: 2, Informative

I've found that Yahoo is better at finding roads when I don't have the complete information (i.e. no zip code). I've tried a few times to find an address in mapquest, only to give up and find it instantly in yahoo maps.

I'm sure there are several examples going the other way as well. In any event, its always better to have several competing services than one monopolistic non-innovative service.

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Karma: SELECT `karma` FROM `users` WHERE `userid`=138474;

Some UK map sites by bartash · 2003-10-20 11:47 · Score: 4, Informative

In the UK try Streetmap or Multimap. IMHO UK Yahoo maps isn't very good.

--
Read Epic the first RPG novel.

Re:Some UK map sites by moreati · 2003-10-20 11:59 · Score: 3, Interesting

If you have a recent java installed, then map24 knocks the veritable socks off all the competition. It displays an interactive vector map, complete with smooth scrolling, zooming and mouse over feature description.

The formatting of the route planning directions leaves a little to be desired, but that's the biggest fault I can think of. On the whole it compares favourably even to MS Autoroute - except it's free, always up to date and cross platform.

If you don't have java it falls back to a static image.

Regards

Alex

I've always preferred MapBlast by Delusional · 2003-10-20 11:48 · Score: 3, Insightful

MapBlast has always produced easier-to-read maps and better quality directions, in my experience. Sadly, their availability waivered for a while there (presumably financial/business model difficulties), and at some point they got bought by ... M$. But you can still type in mapblast.com, it just points to a mapping page on MSN, which, at least so far, retains most of the quality that I always appreciated.

3 Microsofts Mappoint...please do not kill me! by halo1982 · 2003-10-20 11:48 · Score: 2, Interesting

yes this will probably get me flamed to hell...
but i love microsoft's mappoint. it has pretty good maps and shows where theres construction on roads and the time periods the construction goes through. (i.e. there is construction for the next 20 miles on i-40 east from august 2, 2002 to october 4, 2004) and it has an easy to use interface, but i haven't tried it with anything but IE so it will probably kill mozilla or something.
i've also used expedia.com which i have found to be horrible, and i used to use mapquest on a regular basis but that was before i found that it would get me lost when in town and then when it sent me 150 miles out of the way when going to toronto.
wheee mappoint!

Mapquest ~= Yahoo Maps =~ NavTech by lemming552 · 2003-10-20 11:49 · Score: 5, Informative

They both get their maps from NavTech. I'm surprised they'd give a different result.

I always amused by the direction that Navtech would give for one path a couple blocks from home. It would direct me over the barrier between the N & S lanes of a road. Doubly Ironic that my wife worked for NavTech at the time.

Other than that, I use mapquest more often than not, just out of habit.

Re:Mapquest ~= Yahoo Maps =~ NavTech by nicfit · 2003-10-20 11:53 · Score: 5, Insightful

True, the both use Navtech (as well as other data sources depending on the area being rendered), but the routing engines themselves are different. NavTech == data. Although NavTech may have a routing engine, MapQuest does not use it. And up until the AOL acquisition of MapQuest, Yahoo Maps was just a front-end on top of MapQuest technology.

An alternative service by NearlyHeadless · 2003-10-20 11:50 · Score: 5, Funny

Not for the U.S., but check this out.

Don't visit Rhode Island! by MarcQuadra · 2003-10-20 11:50 · Score: 4, Funny

Don't visit Rhode Island unless you want directions like:

"Go up this street to where the jewlery store burned down, take a left onto 6 and get off near where the old onramp used to be, then head towards Fort Thunder, which is now a Stop and Shop"

Seriously, that's how we give directions here. I didn't believe it until I caught myself doing it.

--
"Sometimes, I think Trent just needs a cup of hot chocolate and a blankie." -Tori Amos on Nine Inch Nails

Mapblast's Line Drive by hedgehog2097 · 2003-10-20 11:51 · Score: 2, Informative

In the UK: My vote is for Line Drive on Mapblast for directions, and streetmap.co.uk for er, street-type maps.

Line Drive is surprisingly accurate (to 1/10 mile) if you reset your mileometer at every turning and reference point, and follow the distances. But who does that? (A: me, I'm a navigational klutz and need all the help I can get)... MapKlutz Hint: Do a return journey route too...

...Oh, and MS bought Mapblast, so it sucks now (sorry, forget where I was for a minute!)

Microsoft Streets and Trips by someguy456 · 2003-10-20 11:51 · Score: 4, Interesting

I hope I don't get modded down into oblivion, but I really like Microsoft Streets and Trips. I have the 2002 edition that came with Microsoft Works Suite. Online maps are slow (I'm on modem) and they don't feel right. I get the feeling that they are limited to certain rectangles. With S&T, I can get the feel for the whole map. I can scroll to the edges just as easy/fast as I would scroll on a web page or spreadsheet. From the routes I've gotten from around my area, I can't say either (Yahoo, MapQuest, S&T) is any better than the other. For example, they all insist on me taking highways, even if it takes longer to get there (yes, I know about scenic, shorter, faster,etc, but it didn't make much of a difference)

--
Robert Bindler
A Computer Science student's views on technology.

Re:Microsoft Streets and Trips by cmowire · 2003-10-20 12:03 · Score: 3, Informative

Good points. ;)

The best part about S&T is that it's more interactive. I've got DSL and S&T is still faster. You can reroute the map if you *know* there's a better way. You can define multiple points on the journey and have a complete route. You can use it to print out *good* directions to meet up at some point.

Best part of all is portability. You can download a S&T map to your PDA (Ain't vendor-lockin grand?) or keep it on your laptop and view the directions that way.

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Gentoo Sucks
Re:Microsoft Streets and Trips by plankers · 2003-10-20 12:14 · Score: 2, Interesting

I have a copy of S&T that came with Works, too (and for the other respondants, sometimes you get Works when you order PCs from Dell). :-) I started using it when MapQuest steered me into the wrong half of a medium-sized city and I had to stop and ask directions. I hate that.

One nice thing about it is that you can take a laptop along and always be able to find your way. On trips if your navigator/passenger isn't totally brain dead you can use it to get around traffic jams, etc. in real time. It's also pretty sweet because you can highlight an area and tell S&T to avoid it when plotting the route. And it will take GPS data -- I love being able to see where I am on the map so I have some idea of where to turn.

I just wish S&T would adjust the route dynamically as you went, if it had GPS data to use. That's one advantage of the Garmin dashboard units. If you overshoot a turn or something it will just guide you back around. It would also be cool if it spoke to you to tell you where to go.
Re:Microsoft Streets and Trips by wolf- · 2003-10-20 14:21 · Score: 2, Informative

At the atlanta Winxp Launch Event, they were giving away Mappoint 2002. I had owned Streets and Trips 2001 and liked it. Mappoint's COM extensions were great for integrating it into other apps.

When Streets and Trips 2004 came out, grabbed a copy of it on sale (was like $25) after rebates.

Just got my copy of Mappoint 2004 about 2 weeks ago. Really like the updated maps.

What I do think needs some work is the GPS interface. MP can track the location of your vehicle from a gps device, but it does NOT help you on your trip by telling you what turns are coming up in relation to your current location.

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----- LoboSoft specializes in Digital Language Lab

MapsOnUs / TeleAtlas by emcdermid · 2003-10-20 11:53 · Score: 3, Informative

My preferred site is www.mapsonus.com, which uses data from TeleAtlas North America (aka TANA, formerly Etak).

A few years ago, I was told by someone in the know that TANA tended to be more accurate in actually knowing where a given location was, while NavTech was better at turn-by-turn directions. No idea where MapQuest fits in (at the time, I thought they used NavTech).

IMHO, it's worth checking several sources to triangulate. Just check the fine print on the generated maps, to ensure that you're not looking at two presentations of the same data.

MSN! (asbestos undies on...) by frenchgates · 2003-10-20 11:55 · Score: 3, Interesting

I love MSN best for maps because it is the only one I've found that lets me expand the map display to actually use the resolution of my monitor instead of scrolling the postage stamp map around.

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Syntax error: loose != lose, affect != effect, then!=than

Re:huh? by jbum · 2003-10-20 11:55 · Score: 3, Informative

Yahoo used to get their maps from Map Quest. Since 2002 they've been providing their own service. Both companies use data from Navigation Technologies Corp.

Here's an article on Yahoo's shift from MapQuest:

Yahoo! to MapQuest: Get Lost

Is NavTech Data OpenSource/Freely available? by jwiegley · 2003-10-20 12:04 · Score: 2, Insightful

It looks like everyone uses NavTech data for all of these in car navigation systems.

I was wondering if the data on the CDs you buy from NavTech is actually available in a handy electronic form for free?

It just seems like linux is missing a really cool opportunity to cash in on the embedded navigation market but doesn't seem to be doing so and I was wondering if this is because we can't get any access to decent electronic roadmap data without significant cost or NDAs.

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I will never live for sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.

Re:Is NavTech Data OpenSource/Freely available? by Coffee · 2003-10-20 14:42 · Score: 3, Informative

It is, although not preparsed or incredibly well formatted. All of the mapping systems (for the US) use the US Census TIGER/LINE data, which can be downloaded in original form. It's not the simplest of data to decode, and the reason that NavTech et al. charge for theirs is that they went through the trauma of fixing the more horribly broken bits, and realigning the data to be more usuable.

Another: mapsonus.com by bender647 · 2003-10-20 12:06 · Score: 2, Interesting

I use http://www.mapsonus.com
Can't say its better than the rest though.

Re:Another: mapsonus.com by obfuscated · 2003-10-20 13:21 · Score: 2, Informative

mapsonus was built by the good people at Lucent.

They not only let you store locations, but do a point to point map (A->D with stops in B, and C) which is _really_ nice.

They also have a light integrated yellowpages and you can also look up landmarks on it.

They also have the feature for shortest route, fastest route, avoid freeways, favor freeways, etc.

Mapsonus is definately underrated. You should give it a try.

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-- dK ... Narf Poit!

Re:They are (often, mostly) the same by CoreyCrawford · 2003-10-20 12:08 · Score: 2, Informative

We actually use quiet a few different mapping data backends, some of which are NavTech, GDT, TeleAtlas, and other "special" data compiled from various resources.

AAA takes road construction into account by vossman77 · 2003-10-20 12:11 · Score: 2, Interesting

Granted you have to be a member, but I've had the best luck with AAA TripTik. It tells you details on construction which can be very helpful especially in CT.

Security issues with MapQuest by sgifford · 2003-10-20 12:25 · Score: 2, Informative

MapQuest has some security issues, and I wouldn't recommend using it without cookies turned off or blocked.

There's a cross-site scripting attack which allows people to steal cookies for the site, which will include personal information such as the last three searches you did.

See this advisory for more info.

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My Web Page

Re:Security issues with MapQuest by ruiner13 · 2003-10-20 14:17 · Score: 3, Funny

"MapQuest has some security issues, and I wouldn't recommend using it without cookies turned off or blocked. "
Oh no! They'll find out the quickest path between all the porn and bong shops in the Indianapolis metro area! The horrors!

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today is spelling optional day.

Mapopolis on my Pilot by tbuskey · 2003-10-20 12:33 · Score: 2, Interesting

A whole county at a time is great for finding the backroads. I can zoom in and trace across towns, etc. It fits in my palm and doesn't cost much either. There are also free version with less detail.

that old guy... by Tumbleweed · 2003-10-20 12:46 · Score: 2, Funny

The nearest highway? Why shore, sonny, no problem.

Just git out here on the street and make a left. No, sorry, that's right. No, no, wait, left is right. Now, once you're headin' out that way, be shore to drive slow, cuzza dem potholes the danged gummint never fixes. I swear, those politicians never do a damned thang whut they don't hafta. Spendin' all that money on trips and whatnot, and never a thought atall about the little guy and his shocks.

Why, I remember, just last month, it was. Or maybe the month before that. No, no, it was last month, I remember because that was about the same time my rheumatism flared real bad-like, and I had ta go ta th'doctor, but a'course, he cain't do nuthin' 'bout it, and dat's after I spent FORTY-FIVE MINUTES waitin' in his little waitin' room, with alla dem sick people and squallin' brats. And then, my insurance company is buggin' me about payin' for it, too, since the doctor said he cain't do nuthin'. Anyway, yeah, it was last month, this purdy little lady was drivin' along this road, happy as you please, but not mindin' the potholes, and *wham*, she hit one uh dem big and deep suckers. Well, a'course, like so many young people these days, she was drivin' some foreign piece of shit, so it tore the hell outta that suspension. She damned near had an accident out there! Well, I gave her a good long talking-to about watching out for potholes and buying American, a'course, but she's a woman, so I'm sure she wasn't even listening...

Hey, buddy, where you goin'? I ain't done explainin' how t' get t' the highway!

Aereal photos by YetAnotherName · 2003-10-20 12:58 · Score: 4, Informative

MapQuest has the aereal photos feature. 'nuff said.

Re:Use Vindigo by oniroku · 2003-10-20 13:01 · Score: 2, Informative

Vindigo for Palm devices provides exactly what you are looking for - it's the one killer app for handhelds.

Yahoo is more reliable by Anonymous Coward · 2003-10-20 13:31 · Score: 2, Informative

I've found that using Mapquest has given me bad directions too many times. Mapquest seems encounter problems sometimes when a street doesn't really follow a straight line. For example, people have used both Yahoo and Mapquest to get to my home (I live in a city in California). As you come off the highway, the road curves to the right, but as long as you stay on it, you can reach my home correctly. Yahoo correctly tells people there is a slight curve to the right. However, Mapquest seems to (and don't ask me why) intepret the road as splitting off and tells the user to take a LEFT on a completely different road. This can happen a lot in the city too (for me in both Chicago and San Fran). Yahoo hasn't branched me off to wrong streets yet, but I wouldn't say Yahoo's directions are 100% either. However, I would highly recommend Yahoo over Mapquest any day.

Don't pick, use Google by babbage · 2003-10-20 13:48 · Score: 4, Informative

When searching for an address, I've taken to just searching Google for it. The search is recognized as an address, and the top two links are for Yahoo & MapQuest; each gets opened in a new browser tab for comparison. Sometimes I prefer one, sometimes I prefer the other, but being able to have them side by side so easily gets the job done nicely.

Random recent observations, based on things I happened to be searching for earlier today:

Given an address in Dorchester MA, Yahoo couldn't find it and gave me a generic map of the city; MapQuest got it just right, and had a properly zoomed in map of the street I was looking for.
Given an address in Somerville MA, both sites were able to find the address, and gave a map with substantially the same magnification. However, Mapquest was the only one that indicated one way streets, which is kind of critical info when figuring out how what route you'll have to take.
Given an address in Paris FRA, Mapquest gives up, but Yahoo will automagically redirect to yahoo.fr and the map you were looking for. It's a different site, different layout, all in French, etc -- but the info you're looking for is available from Yahoo, and it wasn't from Mapquest. (On the other hand, Google was also a letdown here -- it's search term parser doesn't seem to be able to do anything useful with a foreign address. Maybe this example would work on google.fr...)
Subjectively, I kind of prefer the web design on the Yahoo map site. But then, they used to drown me in popups. But then I stopped using browsers where that's an issue, so it doesn't matter again. MapQuest isn't so bad if you click the "Big Map" button over on the right side of a given map, but the setting doesn't seem to be sticky across searches, and it really ought to be a user preference controlled by a cookie.

For searching for domestic addresses, neither Yahoo Maps nor MapQuest has completely won me over. Searching both is easy enough that, barring a site redesign on the Mapquest side or a software upgrade on the Yahoo side, I for one will probably keep using both.

Does anyone know of any good alternatives to the "big two"? Or how about for international addresses -- is Yahoo good enough for addresses in e.g. Canada or Europe, or are there better local alternatives? I've seen streetmap.co.uk cited a lot by Londoners, but I don't know what people tend to use elsewhere, or if streetmap.co.uk has any major competition.

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DO NOT LEAVE IT IS NOT REAL

Another one: maptech.com by john_smith_45678 · 2003-10-20 16:23 · Score: 2, Interesting

I found www.maptech.com the other day. Looks pretty good, can be used as a web service too it appears.

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John Kerry is a Joke!

European maps by MacFreek · 2003-10-21 00:50 · Score: 2, Informative

For US-based addresses it's either MapQuest or Yahoo maps. I think they are very simular.

For Dutch maps (where I live), I use locatienet or Andes. The first one being slightly better.

There are way too many options nowadays. See Oddens for a collection of links, including to historic maps (not useful if you just want to find an address, only for the curious of heart).

MapsOnUs by Dont+tempt+me · 2003-10-21 01:07 · Score: 2, Informative

Just another one to throw into the fray, but MapsOnUs (the backend site to Maps.com) has one feature that's invaluable to me -- it displays the lat/lon for every intersection along a route. For GPS tinkerers, it makes it nice to know the lat/lon of a place you've never been too, and with a few utilitys on the internet, you can even make it into a route for the crudest of GPS's.

I haven't found another that had the lat/lon easily displayable.

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----- I hate sigs.

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