Yahoo! Maps releases from Beta
- Posted November 16th, 2006 at 3:31 pm by Yahoo! Search
- Categories: Multimedia Search
Yahoo! Maps is coming out of Beta today. Check out our more detailed notes on the Yahoo! Local & Maps Blog. Since we released the beta version, we?ve spent our time optimizing the product and responding to user feedback to make it ready for mainstream use. The new Yahoo! Maps gives our users a more expedient method of finding locations and getting driving directions, and is an even more powerful tool within Yahoo! Local.
In addition to releasing the new Yahoo! Maps, we?re also rolling out street-level maps for Europe. These are available almost anywhere Yahoo! Maps can be found, whether on Flickr in their photo mapping feature, Yahoo! Travel?s Trip Planner product, and of course to our external developer community using Yahoo! Maps APIs.
Just a quick re-cap of what?s in the new Yahoo! Maps.
? The award winning, most interactive, easy to use interface for the new generation of mapping.
? Multi-point routing, (from A to B to C), which is a great way to plan your day, do your errands, visit garage sales or hunt for a house.
? A new mini-map which gives you an overview of what you?re looking at.
? Satellite and Aerial imagery, wall to wall in the USA, and for over 100 cities internationally.
? Full integration with Yahoo! Local, including search and SmartView.
? Saved locations and auto-complete against your saved locations, recent locations and Yahoo! Address Book.
? The ability to return to the old-style Yahoo! Maps for when you?re on a Dial-Up connection.
? Quick access to maps from within Yahoo! Mail using Yahoo! Shortcuts.
We certainly hope you enjoy using the new Yahoo! Maps, and the Maps team will continue to work to make it faster, more enjoyable, and more useful. Please Take a Tour of our new features, or jump right in!
Thank you!
Mike Lawless, Product Manager, and the Yahoo! Maps Team
- 7 Comments
- Subscribe
It is such a good service. How about Yahoo Maps, Google Maps, MSN maps and directions? Which one can attract more users?
It is ‘functionally’ great, but I find it almost impossible to use for practical purposes. The reasons are as follows:
First, the “Yahoo Mail” flash ad. on the left of the screen is too flashy (I mean it). It always makes me want to leave the site after 5 seconds. Second, typing an address directly to any input field is never smooth on my computer (cpu: PIII-650Mhz), and I get irritated by my characters not showing up for 1.2 second. That is, it just does too much ajax processing while typing. I also think that the side bar is too wide. Lastly, it would be nice if Yahoo provided a “Guest” account and let a guest rate some ratable object (like restaurant, apartment, etc.) just for the purpose of “collecting” information from local people rapidly.
Thanks for reading my post.
Come on,yahoo,giving people something new.
Don’t just follow others.
The launch of street level maps for Europe is something really good.I think everyone will love to have those.It is always good to see new things coming up.
Yahoo maps really messed up my trip to my nephew’s. He lives in Plainfield Il. and I in Kalamazoo MI. Yahoo took me at least 30 miles out of my way and cost me about $5 in tolls. It should have taken me from I-94 to I-80 to I-55 and Ill 30. Instead it took me by the Illinois tri-state almost to Midway Airport in Chicago, then over to the West and back south again. It took probably 1.5 hours longer, costed me money and I was fuming when we finally got there. I don’t know what is wrong with their computer program, but it stinks!
personally I like google maps the best. but I think an improvement in yahoo will be for the best.
Another reason to make Google your primary search engine. The button for the old dialup maps DOESN’T WORK, and I just don’t have the time to wait for all kinds of unnecessary doodads to load.