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| Version | User | Scope of changes |
|---|---|---|
| Nov 28 2007, 12:29 PM EST (current) | jimglab | 1 photo added |
| Nov 28 2007, 12:25 PM EST | jimglab | 1 photo added |
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The how, when, why and, most importantly, where of online mapping services.
Gone are the days of asking for directions to a destination. Today, get the address, plug it into an online mapping service, and you’re on your way. MapQuest is one of the 10 most popular Web sites in the U.S., with 50 million users each month. We asked Christian Dwyer, vice president of the company’s Operations & Business Solutions Group, to give us some insight into mapping services and where they’re going.
Q. Where do you get your data?
We license data from vendors such as NAVTEQ and Tele Atlas, who drive millions of miles of real roadways each year noting new streets, changes to existing roadways and other details. We update this base data several times a year. In addition, we also greatly value our users’ feedback, and every week we make updates to our data based on their feedback. We also make continuous updates to our location and business directory data. For example, this week we made more than 300 updates to locations and addresses shown on our maps.
Q. What percentage of directions are incorrect, and why does that happen?
Less than .1 percent of users report a problem to us. A route may be incorrect because of several factors. Millions of miles of roadways are constantly expanding and changing, and keeping up with data changes is sometimes challenging. We constantly have to make decisions about [which] alterations to include, exclude and change, especially if [they have] not yet been verified by more than one source. Even a small change in a seemingly out-of the-way place can impact thousands of local drivers in a week. I remember when the bridge collapsed in Minneapolis this year, the local DOT hadn’t yet recommended routes around the bridge, and we were making updates to reflect the closed areas very carefully, because we knew that more than 10,000 routes would be re-routed in that area within the week. The wrong change would have created a potential traffic problem on another street.
Q. Do you have any tips for business travelers using your site?
Our new multipoint route feature is perfect for business travelers. Imagine you are visiting several clients. You can put up to 10 locations into MapQuest and quickly get a route between them. It’s easy to reorder your route, and the directions will automatically recalculate. You also can input airport codes to find an airport fast, find hotels near the convention center, find your favorite coffee shop in the area, or even choose alternative routing features to avoid highways and toll roads.
MAPPING FEATURES TO LOOK FOR IN THE FUTURE:
• Real-time weather and traffic conditions.
• Ability to send MapQuest directions directly to your car.
• “Locals-only” driving tips shared by users.
• Ability to synch an email address book or contact manager with MapQuest to access all important addresses quickly.
FAST FACTS
• 43 percent of U.S. Internet users use online mapping sites. (Source: comScore Media Metrix)
• MapQuest.com generates more than 16 million maps and directions on a typical day. (Source: MapQuest internal data)
• More than 50 million unique users access MapQuest every month and more than 3.7 million unique users use it every day, each spending nearly six minutes on the site. (Source: comScore Media Metrix, September 2007)
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