and welcome to Week 12. This week, we'll take a look at two map utilities to see what the differences are, and also to see how they're similar.
For quite a while, MapQuest was the dominant Internet-based map and direction creation tool. It is still v
ery useful, and a lot of people prefer the interface and some of the options that are available. One of my favorite options within MapQuest is the ability to create directions in varied ways. The fastest route versus the shortest route can often give alternatives that are worth looking into. Another option that is very useful when moving about the Chicago area is the ability to choose to avoid tollways.As is nearly always the case these days, a successful sites like MapQuest has spurred Google to create it's own variant of a mapping and direction generating site. Google Maps offers many of the same features that MapQuest does, and some prefer the interface. For my part, I t
end to prefer Google Maps, because it acts in a way that I am used to - for instance, the scroll wheel in Google Maps zooms the view in or out, and I use that feature all the time. Google Maps also has an interesting "street view" option {like this one} for some areas that allows you to look at things from street level.One of my favorite tools, though, is the ability to get directions for public transportation from Google Maps, in addition to walking directions. That makes a difference, and is rather a unique view, I think.
How about you? Try both interfaces out, look up your house, the campus, perhaps someplace that you'd like to visit or have enjoyed in the past? Create a blog post in your own blog about what you found, and about which tool you prefer -
There is also the interesting idea of the Google Maps Mash Up, where the maps interface if used by individuals or companies to create new maps of types that might not have been thought of. Here is a link to a large collection of these things - http://mashable.com/2009/01/08/google-maps-mashups-tools/ I think you'll find that some are rather interesting, others are just odd.
One example of both is Tall Eye - the flag represents where the hole would come out if we began excavating a hole in Oesterle Library's basement, and dug straight down.
Perhaps a project for Spring Break?
jjs - [next week - Google Earth!]
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