In a major overhaul, Yahoo has significantly upgraded its Maps offering with cleaner maps and integrated local search results.
The Sunnyvale-based company in a latest move unveiled its latest mapping improvements, less than a month after Google upgraded its maps service. Yahoo’s service will be available on a test basis at http://maps.yahoo.com/beta.
Rather than starting with a text-based form that asks you to enter a location, the new interface is much more visual, featuring a map of your default location when you start using the service.
Yahoo is matching some of Google’s features, such as the ability to scroll across a map without reloading a Web page, as well as introducing tools that haven’t been available previously on the Internet.
There are also search forms that let you map a specific location, get driving directions by entering a second address, or do a local, keyword-based search. Entering a location causes the map to zoom in on the location. Entering a second address displays driving directions beneath the forms, rescales the map and draws a line illustrating the route.
Drop-down menus automatically keep track of your previous locations, and if you have a Yahoo address book, your entries are also available in the drop-down menu. You can also save locations that you refer to frequently.
The local search form allows you to search for local businesses and services without entering an address—searches automatically take place within the area defined by the current map. Local businesses are represented on the map as numbered icons; mousing over the icon displays the name of the business, and clicking the icon opens up a bubble with additional links.
The innovations include the ability to obtain driving directions to several different city locations and have all the routes simultaneously displayed on the same Web page.
The integration between local search results is also well-done. For example, it is easy to get multi-point driving directions. After requesting driving directions between two places, simply run a local search, and click icons on the map that represent businesses you want to travel to next. Clicking the "directions from" or "directions to" links in the popup for a business will automatically append driving directions to you list from your last location.
As another example, it is easier to manipulate the position and scale of each map. Clicking a location on the map re-centers the map on that position. Double-clicking on a location both centers the map and zooms in on the location. You can also drag maps around on the screen to change the center position.
A new overlay window in the upper right corner of the map shows the relative position of your current view on a larger-scale map. Dragging the grey-shaded box that represents your current view allows you to rapidly scroll the map across a very large area. You can also use the zoom controls on the right side of this overlay to rapidly change the scale of your map.
Many of the new features work this way. It allows users to do things without having to type anything, said Jeremy Kreitler, senior product manager, Yahoo maps & local. Like Google, Yahoo also is including user reviews and phone numbers of local merchants located near the site of the mapping request.
As you build, change, and manipulate maps and directions, the URL in your address window is automatically updated with all current information. This makes it easy to save the map with all the important details you want to keep. Yahoo has also made it easy to print, email or send a fully-annotated map to a WAP-based mobile phone.
Yahoo has optimized the printing process to provide "optimal" output regardless of how you print. There are options to print driving directions with a map, or print text only. You can also print using your browser’s print button and maps will still be formatted intelligently.
As part of the upgrade, Yahoo has made it easier for developers to modify, enhance and use maps on any web site. Two months ago, Yahoo introduced an API that allowed developers to overlay data on Yahoo maps. This functionality has been significantly extended, with two different sets of developer tools.
Hoping to draw even more users to their already popular Web sites so they can generate more ad revenue, Yahoo and Mountain View-based Google have spent much of the past two years engaged in a game of one-upmanship.
Online mapping has become a prime battleground because it is one of the most used features on the Web. The recent improvements made by Yahoo and Google have increased the competitive pressure on AOL’s Mapquest, the longtime leader in Internet maps.