I was geotagging some pictures on Flickr and noticed that Yahoo! Maps has dramatically improved.
Things that jumped out at me:
- Improved legibility. High contrast and easy to read.
- Subway/mass transit stations. They are the small blue circles you see on the map. Google’s icons are much clearer, but it’s a big step to have them available at all. Ideally, they would use the icons that the subway systems use in each market.
- Prominent route numbers for streets that have multiple names.
- Clear identification of neighborhoods. Now, if you could only search by neighborhood names. I’m a big fan of Web services reflecting the way people talk.
- Parking. At tight zoom levels in major cities, parking is called out.
- Clear freeway on/offramp detail.
I can’t see the old version; some of these things may have existed in the previous version and I hadn’t noticed them.
Overall, it feels much better. Still not as good as Google Maps.
Update: The Yahoo! Local blog has details on this release of Maps. Another really cool feature: the ability to request driving directions by landmarks. Here’s a route from the White House to Andrews Air Force Base. Yahoo! also adds building outlines in New York and San Francisco, similar to what Google has done on a larger scale.
Rev. Dan Catts covers flickr and the new Maps on his blog.
[...] [Edit 2: See also:] The Map Room: Yahoo Moves to New Map Platform (”Possibly better”) IDG News Service: Yahoo remakes mapping site All Points Blog: Yahoo! Drops DeCarta for Mapping Engine; New One Live Today reDesign: Yahoo’s new, improved maps [...]
Pingback by geobloggers » Yahoo maps gets another facelift. — May 17, 2007 @ 9:35 am
[...] [Edit 2: See also:] The Map Room: Yahoo Moves to New Map Platform (”Possibly better”) IDG News Service: Yahoo remakes mapping site All Points Blog: Yahoo! Drops DeCarta for Mapping Engine; New One Live Today reDesign: Yahoo’s new, improved maps [...]
Pingback by Geobloggers: Yahoo maps gets a facelift...much better « Identity Unknown — May 17, 2007 @ 9:46 pm
very poor service cannot even locate the simplest of streets no matter which way u type in address with zip city state will not come up.
Comment by johnny whitt — June 8, 2007 @ 10:16 am
I HATE the new yahoo maps — it sucks and blows. Why not give people a choice of the old and the new?!
Comment by Rosemary — June 10, 2007 @ 2:47 pm
I too am disappointed in the new yahoo maps. I am in real estate and I use it numerous times every day to find directions for several different properties. With the new layout I have to type in the entire address including state and zip, whereas before it gave you a separate box for the address, City, State and Zip so I didn’t have to retype the entire address, just the street. I do not use Yahoo Maps at all anymore. I’ve moved on to another venue.
Comment by Bev — June 18, 2007 @ 9:48 am
I HATE THIS NEW MAP IT SHOULD BE REMOVED. I LLIKE THE OLD ONE MUCH BETTER.
Comment by MARIA — June 27, 2007 @ 6:05 pm
My husband drives a tracter-trailor truck, I have to look up his trips, to help him on the road. It would really help ,if you had a map for big trucks. There is so many roads out there, that a big truck is not allowed on. I love using yahoo maps , but I have too,make the big guess too send him down the road ,or,not. If you can come up with a map like that,,, You would have me for life!!! Thank You
Comment by polly — July 1, 2007 @ 9:36 pm
Please give back the old Dial-up map while you fix the ten saved location limit on the new map. Whoever thought that was a suitable workaround should be shot then fired. idiot!
Comment by Barry — July 11, 2007 @ 2:08 pm
Hi,
This yahoo map is very helpful for every one shows the directory of business center. I am very impressive for this yahoo map.
Thanks & Regards
M A Rahaman
Comment by M A Rahaman — January 27, 2008 @ 9:41 pm