Yahoo! Maps Lovin’ Satellite Images
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Written By Reprise Media | April 12, 2006 | Share This
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Late to the party but arriving in style, Yahoo! Maps beta finally added itself some fairly high resolution satellite images of the US, as well as medium resolution satellite pictures (and some map features, like major cities, roads, and rails) of the rest of the world. Having integrated the new maps with their upgraded Farechase travel site, Yahoo!’s product can probably claim to be one of the most useful around.
Although it doesn’t support driving directions outside the US and Canada - you’ll still have to figure out your route from Bombay to Timbuktu the old fashioned way - the detail level of Yahoo!’s worldwide maps is impressive. As Yahoo! says, it “basically lets you find and see every city, town, and major land feature in the world,” and then examine the context with the overlays of roads and other man-made constructions.
As for Farechase, Reuters has a pretty good run down. Links to the travel site can be found in Yahoo! search results for airline and hotel related queries. Working much like familiar brands such as Expedia or Travelocity, Farechase aggregates numerous air and hotel rates from all over the web; hotel locations are plotted on a Yahoo! Map that remains on the screen as you scroll down the listings.
Greg Sterling offers a good write-up of the developments. He notes that MapQuest, the only online mapper ahead of Yahoo! in market share, is planning to add aerial views soon - ironic, seeing as they experimented early with satellite images and abandoned them awhile back. But Sterling also thinks that while views from above are all well and good, the next quantum leap in terms of getting the average user’s attention will involve successfully merging street level images with functional local search. Anyone who’s seen A9’s BlockView feature or tried Windows Live Local’s side-view technology preview can imagine the tantalizing possibilities - that is, once someone figures out how to do it really well.
Topics: Search: Local |