Google Maps is all well and good if you're trying to find directions for your road trip across America. But what if you're a freshman in college and you can never seem to remember how to get from the dining hall to the library? Campus Destinations is a new college-centric map/search engine that can help you on your way.
The service includes listings for academic, residential and other buildings on a handful of US university campuses. There are also listings for nearby restaurants and other destinations. You can find directions from one spot to another by entering items like "art building," and "library" rather than street addresses. Currently 10 university campuses are covered, but we're hoping to see more added soon.
Over the past year or so, pretty much every major online mapping service has added some sort of real-time traffic detection system. But while these systems will let you know which roads to avoid, for the most part they don't do a great job of presenting you with alternatives. Now Microsoft has added a new technology called Clearflow to its Live Maps service which will let you choose a route based on traffic.
What this means is you can now choose to search for the shortest route by time or distance, and you can also have Live Maps redirect you to avoid heavily congested areas. The system is available for 72 US cities at the moment.
The system predicts traffic by time of day, weather, sports events and other factors, so it doesn't rely solely on real-time conditions to determine the best routes although live data is taken into account as well. While the interface is clean and easy to use, we don't see an easy way to let Live Maps know what time you plan to make your trip, which sort of defeats the purpose.
Yahoo! Maps has added the ability to add destinations or change routes simply by dragging and dropping the line from your starting point to your destination. This is a feature Google Maps has had for a few months now, but the Yahoo! Maps version actually has a few extra features that make it well worth the wait.
First up, after you change your route, a window will pop up to compare the distance and travel time of your new route with the original route. In other words, Yahoo! is not shy about telling you what a bad idea it is to veer from the directions it recommended in the first place. But you don't get the real-time street name and mileage updates that you get in Google Maps.
You can also easily remove a new destination just by clicking an "undo" button.
You can get directions on your PC, your phone, or by talking to that friendly gas station attendant. But if you're the sort of person who never likes to admit you're lost, Google's got you covered. The company plans to add Google Maps features to 3500 U.S. gas station pumps starting next month.
Not only will you get access to on-screen directions thanks to a specially designed pump with internet access, but you'll be able to print out directions. At launch, there won't be a keyboard, meaning you can't type in specific directions. But gas station owners will be able to input nearby hotels, restaurants, and other hot spots.
The pumps won't be ad supported, since there's little chance that you're going to click on a button to buy a new pair of shoes while you're at the gas station. Instead, gas station owners can offer local businesses the opportunity to provide coupons, for a fee.
When you need a word for tissue, you probably say Kleenex. Xerox and copy machine are almost synonymous. And for many people, Mapquest means online maps. A huge number of people still use Mapquest as their primary online direction service, even though Google Maps and other services have long had features missing from Mapquest.
It looks like AOL (the company that owns both Mapquest and this blog) has no plans to let Mapquest rest on its laurels. The company pushed out a new version of Mapquest beta today, and an accompanying Mapquest beta blog. TechCrunch reports that today's beta is tomorrow's default interface. Mapquest plans to roll out the changes to its main site by the end of the year.
So what's new? First up, you get a map on the front page, not just text entry boxes. Second, you no longer have to enter a street, city, and state all in separate boxes. There's a unified Google Maps-like box at the top. The default view is the directions view. But you can also search for businesses and places, for example, "coffee shops" in "New York." You still have to remember to type the place name in one box and the location name in the other or you'll be less than satisfied with your results.
Here are a few other features we like:
Print a map showing whatever level of detail you'd like
Move icons out of the way if they're blocking a street name or other important features
Adjust your default settings, including map or aerial view, set home and work locations, etc
Get directions for trips with multiple stops
Minimize the text sidebar and maximize the map
We've put together a little video showing some of the features. You can check it out after the jump.
Google has been providing Google Maps-based public transit directions for a few years now. If you happen to live in Portland, San Diego, Pittsburgh, or a handful of other cities, that is.
But Bloomberg is reporting that Google Transit is about to add directions for the largest public transportation system in the country: New York City.
Earlier this year, Google added subway stop information to New York City maps. But there was no way to get directions from one stop to another. According to Bloomberg, Google is working with New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority and New Jersey Transit to develop the trip planner.
No word on how long you'll have to wait to get your New York subway directions from Google. In the meantime, you might want to check out HopStop, which recently launched a mobile version of its trip planner. Unlike Google, which currently has routes for smaller cities, Hopstop covers New York, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, and Washington D.C.
You've got an appointment in Manhattan tomorrow, so you visit Google Maps and print out the driving directions today. (Don't ask why you're driving from Brooklyn into Manhattan, this is just hypothetical, OK?). You're going less than 10 miles, so it should only take about 23 minu...what???
Like most online mapping services, Google Maps calculates estimated travel times based on speed limits, not on actual road conditions. And if you live in a busy metropolitan area like Los Angeles, San Francisco, or New York, you know that you have to more than double the times Google Maps spits out.
Well, a few months ago Google added traffic updates to its maps. And now it looks like the company's done something useful with that information and added a second estimate for driving time to your directions. Type in any two addresses (in limited metropolitan areas at the moment) and Google will tell you how long it should take to get there under ideal conditions, and during rush hour. Of course, there's no way to account for traffic accidents.
If you thought the ability to avoid highways was crucial for an online mapping service, you're going to love this. Google's just added a new feature to Google Maps that lets you change your directions by clicking and dragging.
Here's how it works. Enter your starting point and destination. When the blue line pops up showing how to get from one place to another, just click the blue line and drag it to another road. The directions will automatically update. Seeing is believing, so have a look at this little video the Google Maps team put together to demonstrate:
This feature could come in handy if you need to make a detour, want to take the scenic route, or just know that there's always traffic on the preferred route.
Google has added public transit info for some cities, although it looks like we'll have to wait a little while before Google Transit expands beyond a limited number of cities. And HopStop gives you transit and walking directions in a limited number of US cities.
But so far most services that provide directions online assume you're driving a car. Mapquest, Google Maps, and pretty much everybody else calculates time based on driving time, and distance based on streets. If you try to follow those directions on foot, you could end up on the highway, or at the very least going unnecessarily out of your way to follow one-way streets.
Walk It is aimed squarely at people on foot. It only covers a few British cities right now (Edinburgh, Birmingham and central London). It'd be nice to see someone develop one service that can provide driving, walking, and public transit directions fro a whole country. But until then, it's nice to see services like Walk It pop up to fill the gap.
One thing that's a bit odd about Walk It's map is that you pull the scrollbar on the left down to zoom in, and up to zoom out, which is the opposite of Google Maps, Mapquest and other services.
Microsoft has launched a public beta of Windows Live Search for mobile, and David Ciccone over at Mobility Today has been kind enough to demonstrate Live Search on his Windows Mobile phone.
The service service is free, but you'll need a J2ME-capable or Windows Mobile phone and a data plan to to try it out.
Overall it looks pretty nifty. You can search for maps or directions, and can even get traffic updates. The maps seem to load pretty quickly, even when you're zooming in on an aerial view. If you're too lazy to type in what you're looking for Microsoft includes a list of built in categories, such as government & community, health & fitness, or nightlife.
You can download the software from the Windows Live page, or you can install it directly to your device. While web page says you need a Windows Mobile phone, I found that the program runs just find on my Dell Axim X50v Pocket PC as long as I have an active internet connection. And the maps look great in VGA resolution.
Fresh Logic Studios has stepped out of left field with Atlas, a flashy (or should I say Ajaxy?) new mapping service. Basically what Fresh Logic has done is grab the maps from Windows Live Local and slap a slick new interface on it. Atlas is very attractive and has a tabbed interface that devotes a ton of real estate to the map itself while keeping other functions hidden until you need them. This is mostly a good thing, but having some controls unavailable means some clicking around if you want to switch from, say, searching to panning and zooming. Atlas inherits most of Windows Live Local and adds features like gas prices, events, and WiFi hotspot location (only available after you register for free), and feels a bit snappier than Windows Live Local for some tasks. Unfortunately, every time I tried to get directions I got an error message, but I look forward to finding out how that interface works.
I would call iPod Directions a cool Yahoo! Maps/iPod mash-up, but it's not really a mash-up at all. It's a web service that fetches directions from Yahoo! Maps and gives them to you as a ZIP file full of images to drop into your iTunes photo folder. It's both simple and ingenius, because all it does is grab the images and text directly from Yahoo! Maps' turn-by-turn directions, convert the text into images, and serve them to you together in a format perfect for a slideshow on your iPod. Of course, this comes with the same caveat as plain old Yahoo!/Google/whatever Maps, i.e you have to remember to get directions before you leave. The major advantage of having them on your iPod rather instead of printing them out is, I suppose compactness. If you're going on a road trip with a dozen out-of-the-way stops, carrying your iPod (which you carry around anyway) might be preferable to a sheaf of printouts. Now, what would really be cool would be if it did speech synthesis and gave you an MP3 so you didn't have to look at the iPod while driving.
Finally, what might be a
compelling reason to upgrade my old 'n crufty phone: Google Local Mobile. Google
has finally taken the next logical step and brought Google Local (Google Maps included) to mobile
phones. Though I can't actually use it, from the tour it look fantastic.
It has almost all of Google Local's features, including built-in local search, driving and walking directions, and even
satellite images. Google Local Mobile will work on most Java-enabled phones and can be accessed by going to google.com/glm in your phone's web browser.
Update: As sometimes
happens, we missed Google Local Mobile when it was actually new. Thanks to Kaos for pointing out that it's been around
for a few months.
Following in Google and Yahoo!'s wake,
venerable mapping site (and fellow AOL company) MapQuest has released an open API that third-party
developers can use to integrate mappingservices into their own web sites. The new "OpenAPI" supports most of
what Google and Yahoo!'s APIs do, like push-pin markers and pop-up info boxes, with the addition of route-planning that
competing APIs lack. For free users, OpenAPI has a limit of 50,000 maps and geocodes (combined) and 5,000 routes per day (compare to Google's
50,000 and Yahoo!'s no limit). To get an idea of what can be done with the API take a look at the sample mash-up, Mapzierge. You can also check out the OpenAPI
developers' blog, and if you come up with something cool you should enter their Developers Challenge.
Though I'm always glad to see a new open API, and even though MapQuest has improved some in the last year, I must say
it still feels remarkably clunky. Baby steps, I guess.
Google has been providing Google Maps-based public transit directions for a few years now. If you happen to live in Portland, San Diego, Pittsburgh, or a handful of other cities, that is.
You've got an appointment in Manhattan tomorrow, so you visit Google Maps and print out the driving directions today. (Don't ask why you're driving from Brooklyn into Manhattan, this is just hypothetical, OK?). You're going less than 10 miles, so it should only take about 23 minu...what???
Google has added public transit info for some cities, although it looks like we'll have to wait a little while before Google Transit expands beyond a limited number of cities. And HopStop gives you transit and walking directions in a limited number of US cities.
Fresh Logic Studios has stepped out of left field with Atlas, a flashy (or should I say Ajaxy?) new mapping service. Basically what Fresh Logic has done is grab the maps from Windows Live Local and slap a slick new interface on it. Atlas is very attractive and has a tabbed interface that devotes a ton of real estate to the map itself while keeping other functions hidden until you need them. This is mostly a good thing, but having some controls unavailable means some clicking around if you want to switch from, say, searching to panning and zooming. Atlas inherits most of Windows Live Local and adds features like gas prices, events, and WiFi hotspot location (only available after you register for free), and feels a bit snappier than Windows Live Local for some tasks. Unfortunately, every time I tried to get directions I got an error message, but I look forward to finding out how that interface works.
I would call iPod Directions a cool Yahoo! Maps/iPod mash-up, but it's not really a mash-up at all. It's a web service that fetches directions from Yahoo! Maps and gives them to you as a ZIP file full of images to drop into your iTunes photo folder. It's both simple and ingenius, because all it does is grab the images and text directly from Yahoo! Maps' turn-by-turn directions, convert the text into images, and serve them to you together in a format perfect for a slideshow on your iPod. Of course, this comes with the same caveat as plain old Yahoo!/Google/whatever Maps, i.e you have to remember to get directions before you leave. The major advantage of having them on your iPod rather instead of printing them out is, I suppose compactness. If you're going on a road trip with a dozen out-of-the-way stops, carrying your iPod (which you carry around anyway) might be preferable to a sheaf of printouts. Now, what would really be cool would be if it did speech synthesis and gave you an MP3 so you didn't have to look at the iPod while driving.
Following in Google and Yahoo!'s wake,
venerable mapping site (and fellow AOL company) MapQuest has released an open API that third-party
developers can use to integrate mappingservices into their own web sites. The new "OpenAPI" supports most of
what Google and Yahoo!'s APIs do, like push-pin markers and pop-up info boxes, with the addition of route-planning that
competing APIs lack. For free users, OpenAPI has a limit of 50,000 maps and geocodes (combined) and 5,000 routes per day (compare to Google's
50,000 and Yahoo!'s no limit). To get an idea of what can be done with the API take a look at the sample mash-up, Mapzierge. You can also check out the OpenAPI
developers' blog, and if you come up with something cool you should enter their Developers Challenge.
Though I'm always glad to see a new open API, and even though MapQuest has improved some in the last year, I must say
it still feels remarkably clunky. Baby steps, I guess.
