An Overview Of Maps Yahoo
Mapping your way from point A to point B used to be a chore. You would have to look up the street name on the map, match up the number and letter quadrant and then look up the next location in the same way. You would try to trace a line with a pencil and find alternate routes, hoping to God there wasn’t too much traffic or construction obstructions. Today, you just type an address into the search engine at maps Yahoo (www.maps.yahoo.com) and step-by-step directions pop up to guide you to your destination, while showing you weather conditions, traffic flow information and construction at the same time. You can even bypass toll routes or highways, search several different stops on your route and email the directions to your cell phone. Getting around has never been easier, and it is only the beginning.
One benefit of Yahoo Maps is that you can find local information about businesses, restaurants, gas stations, hotels, museums and more by typing in general search terms for your city. You can access this information through the driving directions page or visit directly at www.local.yahoo.com. Yahoo’s Local Search listings mimic the Yellowpages, but combine mapping capabilities, user-generated content and reviews, photos and videos. To search, you just need to know generally what you are looking for and where (for instance: “best pizza in new york city”) and the search engine does the rest. Yahoo automatically shows you other favorite restaurants as rated by other Yahoo members and invites you to add your own reviews.
A more obvious benefit of maps Yahoo is that you can get from one location to another faster. Once you enter an address, you can get a detailed map of the location and if you right-click “Drive To,” you will get step-by-step directions from one location to another. “Multiple-Point Directions” lets you make several different stops on your journey. The “Mini-Map” lets you find a location easier and you can also drag and zoom your mouse over the map to move from North to South and East to West. Real Time Traffic will show you accidents, road construction and traffic delays, with satellite maps to give you a real-life glimpse of the situation, so you can bypass any trouble spots.
The benefit of using traditional maps over online maps used to be that paper maps could be folded up and brought with you. However, the maps Yahoo creates are now easier than ever to take with you. Some people print the directions, using the new interactive print page. Other people email maps to friends or family. The “Send To” option lets you send backup directions to your cell phone as well. Perhaps in the future we will see Yahoo, Google and MSN creating map applications for GPS devices. Since online mapping is still in its infancy, we are likely to see countless other innovations in the years to come.
