Yahoo Maps Updated with New Features, New Look   - 4,487 Views, 1 Comment

The popular Yahoo maps service got a facelift a few weeks ago, as the maps Yahoo offers were ported to a spiffy new platform, offering more features and a new look. New features enjoyed by the Yahoo maps system include the ability to get driving directions within 34 countries in Europe, terrain overlays, and enhanced printing capabilities. Yahoo maps may be found directly at maps.yahoo.com (not yahoomaps.com, although that is a common mistake). Choose either maps.yahoo.com/broadband for the feature rich version, or maps.yahoo.com/dialup for the old, simpler version.

According to a post on the Yahoo blog, the upgrade “addresses suggestions, feature requests and bug fixes reported through the yws-maps group.”

The post goes on to say that “some of the front-end improvements you’ll immediately notice when test-driving the improved Yahoo! Maps include:

Ability to get driving directions within 34 European countries from the U.S. Yahoo! Maps site, including:

Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Great Britain, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Ireland, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, France, and Italy

Albania, Bosnia/Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, The Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia/Montenegro, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Turkey

Other improvements include:

“A fresh new look and feel to our maps design that is distinctively Yahoo!

Terrain overlays that provide added dimension and information at the medium and higher zoom levels.

Neighborhood and building footprints for NYC and San Francisco show greater context at the zoom level. Additional cities are planned for rollout in 2007.

Search for directions using only a point of interest (e.g., Empire State Building, Eiffel Tower).

Redesigned interactive print page makes it easier to print and read driving directions.

For users of our dial-up Maps, we have added many of the most popular features from our broadband version (new maps design, multi-point driving direction, one box address entry, integration of Yahoo! Local data), without sacrificing speed or performance.”

So there you have it!

If you are a user of Yahoo maps, what do you think of the new, improved looks and functionality?