Techcrunch’s Maps Review

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by: bubba murarka

A few people were talking about the recently posted techcrunch comparison of Ask Maps, Google Maps, MapQuest, Windows Live Local and Yahoo Maps today.  The comments on their post have a good bit of back and forth and I really liked how Frank engaged in the comment discussion (scoble and steve lombardi both provided some WLL feature data points). 

I was bummed that there wasn't any mention of the wacky/cool new preview feature that the WLL team released a while ago.  It enables you to drive (or walk!) down the street and get a street side view of Seattle or San Francisco.  It also lets you move via the keyboard. 

On a minor note, Frank noted that WLL doesn't put a route line on the map for driving directions.  When I mapped my daily commute I got one, so I'm not sure if I'm missing what he meant or if this was missed. 

One thing the techcrunch review prompted me to do was go back to Mapquest.  I hadn't been there in a very long time, and was surprised to see how different its interface was from the other big mapping services.  Since they are the lions share of map traffic I wasn't sure how to interpret that.  In the end, traffic will tell, but I couldn't help and wonder if there is more then one formula for mapping UIs.

Being candid – I had never thought much about maps until the last 6 months, but now I'm blown away by what is out there and eager to see what is to come.  I'm really glad there are so many passionate cartographer out there!  FWIW, my favorite map related thing is going by birds eye tourism to see shamu and the like. 

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21 thoughts on “Techcrunch’s Maps Review”

  7. Erica, I’m using Firefox here and it works for me. What version of Firefox are you using? What OS? And what behaviors are you seeing not work?

    Like

  8. Erica, I’m using Firefox here and it works for me. What version of Firefox are you using? What OS? And what behaviors are you seeing not work?

    Like

  9. Bubba – Welcome as our guest host for a while longer.

    The maps side of life is getting better all the time. BTW, congrats on the purchase of Vexcel! I keep bumping in to Bob from their Canada offices (GREAT guy). I know Microsoft can do some fine things with that acquisition.

    You might also check out MetaCarta.com. For enterprise knowledge management (with a map-centric query method) there’s not much of anything out there that can touch it. It’s pretty fine stuff. GB

    Like

  10. Bubba – Welcome as our guest host for a while longer.

    The maps side of life is getting better all the time. BTW, congrats on the purchase of Vexcel! I keep bumping in to Bob from their Canada offices (GREAT guy). I know Microsoft can do some fine things with that acquisition.

    You might also check out MetaCarta.com. For enterprise knowledge management (with a map-centric query method) there’s not much of anything out there that can touch it. It’s pretty fine stuff. GB

    Like

  11. Pingback: J. LeRoy

  12. I’m using XP/Firefox 1.5.02 and the line doesn’t show up for directions in Live.
    I always thought Live was not meant to be used for directions 😀 Now I see there are lines when I use IE6

    Has the Streets&Trips team transferred to the Live Maps team? S&T doesn’t seem to be an active team (based on features that are available on competing products not on the features they added to the last version). They better get working before Origami hits big time. Otherwise the other map services (TomTom Navigator or Oncourse Navigator or iGuidance) are going to steal the show.

    Like

  13. I’m using XP/Firefox 1.5.02 and the line doesn’t show up for directions in Live.
    I always thought Live was not meant to be used for directions 😀 Now I see there are lines when I use IE6

    Has the Streets&Trips team transferred to the Live Maps team? S&T doesn’t seem to be an active team (based on features that are available on competing products not on the features they added to the last version). They better get working before Origami hits big time. Otherwise the other map services (TomTom Navigator or Oncourse Navigator or iGuidance) are going to steal the show.

    Like

  16. Firefox 1.5.0.2 and I get no line for the route. Switch to IE using the Firefox IETab extension and the route line shows up.

    Like

  17. Firefox 1.5.0.2 and I get no line for the route. Switch to IE using the Firefox IETab extension and the route line shows up.

    Like

  18. Ah yes, that feature WLL copied from A9 Yellow Pages. It can be handy to know what the store looks like as well as nearby businesses.

    Like

  19. Ah yes, that feature WLL copied from A9 Yellow Pages. It can be handy to know what the store looks like as well as nearby businesses.

    Like

  20. “On a minor note, Frank noted that WLL doesn’t put a route line on the map for driving directions. When I mapped my daily commute I got one, so I’m not sure if I’m missing what he meant or if this was missed.”

    If you’re asking if this page displays outside of Microsoft, then for me it does not:
    http://local.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=37.687938~-122.313236&style=r&lvl=11&scene=1221156&rtp=pos.37.779554_-122.438707_Origin~pos.37.413262_-122.072416_Destination

    When I view-source and search on term “VML” I find scads of hits… perhaps this is the over-bound authoring choice…?

    Like

  21. “On a minor note, Frank noted that WLL doesn’t put a route line on the map for driving directions. When I mapped my daily commute I got one, so I’m not sure if I’m missing what he meant or if this was missed.”

    If you’re asking if this page displays outside of Microsoft, then for me it does not:
    http://local.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=37.687938~-122.313236&style=r&lvl=11&scene=1221156&rtp=pos.37.779554_-122.438707_Origin~pos.37.413262_-122.072416_Destination

    When I view-source and search on term “VML” I find scads of hits… perhaps this is the over-bound authoring choice…?

    Like

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