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Reviving MapQuest seems about as likely to me as AOL reviving it's dialup business. The simple fact is that the quality bar has risen to the point where maps ha

Reviving MapQuest seems about as likely to me as AOL reviving it's dialup business. The simple fact is that the quality bar has risen to the point where maps have become a pay to play space with serious table stakes. You can't just buy a bundle of 3rd party data, slap a nice UI on it and call it a day anymore. Maybe MapQuest could do something unique with merging it's brand name with OSM but even that seems like a pretty faint possibility. I have no doubt they could manage to remain profitable for some ungodly amount of time by relying on pure inertia from their legacy customers. But trying to find meaningful ways to grow the brand seems like throwing good money after bad.

a3n 11y ago
If google keeps loading their interface down with widgets and geegaws that I can't get rid of, and keeps screwing up their route line that now sometimes can and sometimes can't be sensibly dragged around, then at some point one of my frustration visits to mapquest will see me not returning.
- Gibbon1 11y ago
  You can try bing maps. I'm basically done with google maps for good. My impression is it's no long a map service but show me the nearest Chili's Grill & Bar on my smart phone service.
  - a3n 11y ago
    Thanks, I think you just gave me my new map. The map itself is fairly clean. It had a little trouble figuring out that Northsouth and Eastwest, mytown, mystate was an intersection on a map site (WTF?) and not a search for businesses with Northsouth in the name, but when I gave it blvd to Northsouth and figured it out. The routing line on directions was nicely moveable. And, duckduckgo has a bang code for it, !bm. I'm there.
qbrass 11y ago
After spending 10 minutes trying to find where Google moved their menu so I could print directions, (I completely missed the hamburger menu blended into the text box) I gave up used MapQuest instead. Instead of focusing on the quality of their map data, MapQuest can just compete by not ruining their UX.
- jinushaun 11y ago
  Agreed. Google keeps ruining maps with needless UI changes. I still occasionally drop down to Classic because some feature I use is hard to find or hasn't been ported yet.
  - marvy 11y ago
    example?
    - pfranz 11y ago
      I'm pretty sure the person you drop down for street view was missing for a few weeks. I can't remember if street view was accessible in other ways. I was looking for the short url last week. It used to be near the top-right under something like "URL." Now, it's in the bottom-right, under the gear, then "share or embed map." I was looking for satellite view for awhile, until I realized they renamed it to "Earth." I just assumed they no longer offered a printable page with directions. When messing around for this comment I found it under "Details" after you look up driving directions.
    - adamzochowski 11y ago
      In classic mode, you can do street view half of the screen, and map/earth view the other half of the screen. This is amazing if you are travelling to a new area and want to learn map quickly (as you see street view and map view at the same time, in as much detail). The new street view hides the map in bottom corner, it now is a small thumbnail travesty with no way to to make it larger. And the thumbnail map cannot be made into satellite/earth view.

a3n 11y ago

If google keeps loading their interface down with widgets and geegaws that I can't get rid of, and keeps screwing up their route line that now sometimes can and sometimes can't be sensibly dragged around, then at some point one of my frustration visits to mapquest will see me not returning.

Gibbon1 11y ago
You can try bing maps. I'm basically done with google maps for good. My impression is it's no long a map service but show me the nearest Chili's Grill & Bar on my smart phone service.
- a3n 11y ago
  Thanks, I think you just gave me my new map. The map itself is fairly clean. It had a little trouble figuring out that Northsouth and Eastwest, mytown, mystate was an intersection on a map site (WTF?) and not a search for businesses with Northsouth in the name, but when I gave it blvd to Northsouth and figured it out. The routing line on directions was nicely moveable. And, duckduckgo has a bang code for it, !bm. I'm there.

qbrass 11y ago

After spending 10 minutes trying to find where Google moved their menu so I could print directions, (I completely missed the hamburger menu blended into the text box) I gave up used MapQuest instead. Instead of focusing on the quality of their map data, MapQuest can just compete by not ruining their UX.

jinushaun 11y ago
Agreed. Google keeps ruining maps with needless UI changes. I still occasionally drop down to Classic because some feature I use is hard to find or hasn't been ported yet.
- marvy 11y ago
  example?
  - pfranz 11y ago
    I'm pretty sure the person you drop down for street view was missing for a few weeks. I can't remember if street view was accessible in other ways. I was looking for the short url last week. It used to be near the top-right under something like "URL." Now, it's in the bottom-right, under the gear, then "share or embed map." I was looking for satellite view for awhile, until I realized they renamed it to "Earth." I just assumed they no longer offered a printable page with directions. When messing around for this comment I found it under "Details" after you look up driving directions.
  - adamzochowski 11y ago
    In classic mode, you can do street view half of the screen, and map/earth view the other half of the screen. This is amazing if you are travelling to a new area and want to learn map quickly (as you see street view and map view at the same time, in as much detail). The new street view hides the map in bottom corner, it now is a small thumbnail travesty with no way to to make it larger. And the thumbnail map cannot be made into satellite/earth view.