05 November 2005

Yahoo! Maps vs. Google Maps

As much of a fan of Gmail that I am, I must admit that Yahoo! Maps is better than Google Maps. Even before Yahoo! Maps got its facelift, it was better. The test that I use for any mapping service is to ask it to plot a route from my house in New York to a place that I used to go on vacation in rural Maine. Sometimes mapping services have tried to plot me a route across the water on this route, but not this time. While I think both of them take me along the same route, Google Maps refers to the roads by name, rather than state road number (as Yahoo! Maps does in addition to calling it by name) It makes it much easier to spot the road if you have the road number, since you see a junction and a large sign with the road number, as opposed to just a little tiny green sign with the name, which is not easy to spot if you're moving at a good clip. Plus, Yahoo! Maps remembers previous addresses I have looked up, Google Maps does not.
Yahoo! also has a new mail service, which I'd like to try, but right now it looks like it is still in Beta and unavailable to most people.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Doogles Van Boorstein,
I respectfully disagree with your comments. To be "fair and balanced," we must add Mapquest.com to the dispute. I do realize that the interface of Mapquest may be a bit antiquated, a tad slower and it is not as "cool" (as you kids these days like so much). However, it does provide sound direction and largely is the program I utilize to "plot my course". To be honest, my sense of direction is so accurate (they used to call me "the gator" in high school - short for...navigator), that I rarely need to use these silly and sophomoric programs that you kids so desparately desire these days. Welp, I am glad to hear that you are doing well and we'll talk to you soon. Take care now.
-John A. Frekko