Mapquest Making A Comeback

At one point, Mapquest was one of the most important tools we had when it came to travel. These days, Mapquest has almost become 100% irrelevant in the modern world. In most cases, it would make you mad if you actually had to use Mapquest instead of your phone.

The mappers at Mapquest know that their product has fallen off, but they have not stopped developing their business. They have continued working and building on their product to make a big return to relevance in the mobile technology world.

Mapquest was intended to help you navigate your travels, but these days most people only use it to get a general idea of how much gas money they are going to spend ahead of time and figure out how long their trips will take. Even if it isn't being used as it was intended, it has still maintained its ranking as one of the top 200 websites in the United States. Recently, they added local discovery and sharing along with a brand new mobile mapping product. They have also gained a lot of partners to enhance the quality of all the listings on its map product.

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They have teamed up with MLB and Hampton Inn. Now users can see all of the Hampton Inns near them on one tab and will also be able to book hotel rooms.

Partnering with MLB has helped them out in several ways. It's nice for users to be able to explore the stadiums on Mapquest and have the ability to download specific team kits. It also benefits Mapquest because now they are the sole mapping partner within the official MLB app.

Now Mapquest results also include all of the listings and information for GrubHub online ordering, SinglePlatform, Booker's schedule for spas, SeatGeek results for event tickets, FAA airport delays, and in the coming months will also include Foursquare's venue tips.

Mapquest is trying to fight to become what they once were. They used to be the go to tool for anyone's travel needs. Now, it's going to take a lot more for them to rise to the top, especially with Google and Apple having their own built in travel tools and fighting every day to overcome each other. The competition is insane, and Mapquest thinks they have what it takes to move beyond simple road mapping and transform into a full-service utility for every day use.

Google Adds Bike Routes to Google Maps

Seems like Google is always adding something to their search engine and this time they've added to Google maps. The new feature, Bike Maps, allows you the option to get directions not just for traveling by car, foot or public transit, but for traveling by bike as well. If you're riding your bike to a destination, you're more than likely not going to go to the same route you would if you were driving a car and Google is looking to serve those people.

"We wanted to include as much bike trail data as possible, provide efficient routes, allow riders to customize their trip, make use of bike lanes, calculate rider-friendly routes that avoid big hills and customize the look of the map for cycling to encourage folks to hop on their bikes. So that's exactly what we've done," said Shannon Guymon, the product manager for Google Maps.

The over 12,000 miles of bike trail data came from Rails-to-Trail's Conservancy's database at TrailLink.com. The group, which is a nonprofit organization located in Washington DC, has been collecting the information since 2000 and has gathered maps, pictures, descriptions, and listings for over 30,000 miles of bike trails. According to the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, biking has become more popular lately because it's healthier and less expensive than other options.

Google incorporated the data into its routing algorithm, included metropolitan areas with designated bike lanes and roads that were recommended by other cyclists, and took into consideration how busy certain roads are. Oh yeah, and there is the matter of hills.

"Our biking directions are based on a physical model of the amount of power your body has to exert given the slope of the road you're biking on Assuming typical values for mass and for wind resistance, we compute the effort you'll require and the speed you'll achieve while going uphill. We take this speed into account when determining the time estimate for your journey, and we also try hard to avoid routes that will require an unreasonable degree of exertion," said Google software engineer John Leen.

Google Maps for bikes launches today and as you can see from the picture above, all you need to do is choose "bicycling" instead of one of the other options ("by car" is the default option), when you go to look for directions.

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Google Store View Coming to Google Maps?

With Google Maps' Street View, you can view almost any street in America or almost any major city in the world, but what if you can go inside the buildings? That possibility may become a reality with the rumored Google Store View.

The blog Search Engine Land received an email from a New York city candy shop, Oh Nuts, which claimed a Google representative came inside and took pictures of the store and its products. The reason is supposedly because Google is working on a new feature, which is tentatively being called Google Store View.

While no one will confirm whether or not this really happened, the store did send in photos from store security cameras, which show someone walking around the store with a camera and tripod, taking pictures. When contacted by Switched.com, Google would only say, "We are always experimenting with new features for Google Maps. We have nothing further to announce at this time."

If this really happens, it could change a lot of things about the way we shop. Customers could browse stores without leaving their homes, which is good for customers, not so much for businesses. Also, it would allow people to browse stores in locations they aren't familiar with or plan to travel to ahead of time. The other problem is the privacy concerns that often pop up with Google Maps. If people are worried about views of themselves outside of various places, you can bet they're going to be upset that they're being followed inside. Never mind the fact that it would take a lot of work on Google's part to get every store in the country to allow the photography.

While it's quite possible Google is experimenting with the idea, don't expect it to happen anytime soon. If the woman taking pictures inside the store really is with the company, her equipment doesn't really look like something they'd use for this type of venture. Also, it's a long road between one little candy shop in New York and the entire United States or even the entire city of New York.

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OpenStreetMap: The Wikipedia of Maps

When Steve Coast, the founder of OpenStreetMaps, was playing with a GPS unit in 2004, he decided he wanted to modify the map, but knew doing so would be a copyright infringement. That's when it occurred to him; who better to create maps of neighborhoods than the people who lived in them? He thought of Wikipedia, an open-source encyclopedia-like website that allows readers to make changes and additions to entries and decided to take this concept to the world of maps. He began presenting the idea at various tech conferences and just a couple of years after launching his website, OpenStreetMaps.org, he had over 10,000 users. By 2009, they had 160,000 unique users. Coast, who is British, said the concept initially picked up in Europe (Germany is almost 100% mapped) but he has only been pushing the idea in the United States over the last year and a half and has been searching for a city in which to hold his first American OpenStreetMaps mapathon.

What exactly is a mapathon? It's an event, that lasts a few days, in which several people work on mapping one particular area. This weekend (October 16-18), the first mapathon is being held in Atlanta. Several schools, colleges and local businesses will be participating. Coast said he chose Atlanta because of the interest from city government, local businesses and individuals. According to a press release, the Atlanta OpenStreetMap will be used for a wide range of applications that "include local businesses wishing to streamline location-based operations, students wishing to carry out geographical surveys/ projects, and civic groups participating in urban development projects." Attendees of the mapthon will travel the streets with GPS units marking streets, cycleways, footpaths, and points of interests such as landmarks, attractions, hotels, and restaurants. This weekend's event will focus on the area inside I-285 and future events will be held to focus on areas outside of Atlanta's interstate perimeter. The goal is to see to it that Atlanta is the most detailed and accurately represented city on the website. If the event is successful, with any luck, more cities will follow.

OpenStreetMaps is a nonprofit organization and is free to registered users. Any user can add to or edit the electronic maps, which can be downloaded to many GPS units.