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Best Online Mapping Site?

Posted by timothy on from the interfacing-with-the-real-world dept.

bbulzibar asks: "I've been using MapQuest most of my life, but now as my mind is slowly expanding, I want to see if Yahoo! Maps is a better service for driving directions. According to one article I have read, Yahoo! is better at displaying maps, but what about calculating directions? Does anyone have any experience with differences? For example, Yahoo! and MapQuest give differing routes to go from Bloomington, IN to Madison, WI." I particularly like MapBlast's "Line Drive" direction style -- what's your favorite online mapping software?

5 of 603 comments (clear)

  1. Seriously?! by NoData · · Score: 5, Funny

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

    HOLY SHIT do I feel old.

  2. Maps for walking routes? by bokelley · · 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?

    --
    warning: epoll_wait is not implemented and will always fail
  3. Mapquest ~= Yahoo Maps =~ NavTech by lemming552 · · 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.

    1. Re:Mapquest ~= Yahoo Maps =~ NavTech by nicfit · · 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.

  4. An alternative service by NearlyHeadless · · Score: 5, Funny

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