The New Obsession With Online Mapping
from the places-to-go dept
After the initial burst of online maps from Yahoo and Mapquest, it had seemed like the online map world had settled down, other than an occasional complaint that the maps or driving directions were wrong. That completely changed recently when online maps became "hot" again, as the existing companies started upgrading their mapping features and new entrants like Google and Amazon/A9 entered the space. Now, it seems like everyone is talking about online maps. Both Wired and CNET have stories about online mapping this morning. News.com has a completely random and totally unscientific test comparing a single set of directions across a bunch of the sites (and then comparing it to how a single, randomly chosen, taxi driver would drive the same route). Meanwhile, Wired is running a short piece about how more readily available maps change the way people do things, whether it's where to place new McDonald's franchises to the latest map mashups that are suddenly becoming popular.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
a bleg
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: a bleg
But might I suggest that if you can't type Google Maps into Google to find the information yourself, you may not be quite ready to use such a tool.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
maps and "internet maps"
On a serious not, if you want to try a free internet mapping tool that enables you to generate "internet maps" of websites based on issues, try
www.govcom.org
Dr. Richard Rogers of the University of Amsterdam, and a friend from undergrad started it and the project was funded by Soros.
Rogers has written a couple of books on internet mapping and politics on the web. See Amazon UK.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
geotouch
[ link to this | view in thread ]