MapQuest Blog

Just in time for your ever-increasing-cabin-fever-need-to-get-out-and-about-in-the-world, we've launched our latest feature – 360 View Link To! Now you can grab your favorite 360 View image angle and use the "Link or Embed" functionality to copy/paste a URL of that exact image to share with your family and friends.

For instance, if you're headed to Boston for St. Patty's Day, you'll need the perfect location for a completely Irish experience; click over to www.MapQuest.com and search for your favorite Irish Pub in Boston, MA. Once you find a pub that you like, chances are, there will be a 'Launch 360 View' thumbnail image and link that are clickable.



After the 360 View player opens, you can rotate the 360 View image by using your mouse or the compass arrows to get the exact angle of the 360 View image that you want to capture.



Then, click the "Link or Embed" button near the top of the page...



...and copy/paste the tiny URL that captured the 360 View image and send it to all your pals via text, email, Twitter or Facebook. You can also use the tiny URL for your business listings online – you choose your method of communication and we'll provide a great image and map! Find out more detailed information on 360 View Link To on our MapQuest Help Site.

Explore to find your favorite 360 View image and have fun sharing with all your social networks!

We've been reading customer suggestions, and heeded the call for greater coverage on the line-up of BlackBerry® mobile devices. As of just yesterday, you can now get MapQuest 4 Mobile, a free app, on six new BlackBerry devices, across numerous carriers in the US:

BlackBerry 8220 Pearl Flip
BlackBerry 8230 Pearl Flip
BlackBerry 8520 Curve
BlackBerry 8900 Curve
BlackBerry 9700 Bold
BlackBerry 9630 Tour

Download MapQuest 4 Mobile from BlackBerry App World™ now. Once you've downloaded it, please rate it - we want to hear what you like and/or what we should improve!

In case you're not familiar with MapQuest 4 Mobile, here's a quick look at it's features:

• My Places: Registered My Places users on MapQuest.com can view their saved maps and routes.
• Directions: Reliable directions you've come to expect from MapQuest.com.
• Maps: Enjoy aerial maps and street maps with quick pan and zoom features.
• Live Traffic: Live traffic with the latest road conditions.
• Find Me: See your location from your phone's GPS chip. Track your progress as you move (select handsets only).
• Local Search: Search for a business, either by name, or maybe just a category. Pizza anyone?

Sharing is a big part of being connected on the Web. We share links over IM, tweet random thoughts on Twitter and share a little bit of everything on Facebook. Today we're sharing that we have added a new feature on MapQuest to make it simple to share maps, directions and places to your Facebook friends.

Share to Facebook will allow you to post a note, small map and descriptive link on your Facebook wall right from MapQuest.com. So, in addition to letting your friends know that you're headed to a concert later this week or sharing pictures from your latest trip, you can now also use Facebook to share some helpful location information.

Here's how you use it:

1. Get a MapQuest Map, Directions, or Search
2. Click the Facebook Share icon
3. Log into Facebook and authorize MapQuest to post to your Facebook Wall
4. Add a note
5. Click 'Publish' to post it to Facebook

It's not a complicated feature, but it is another example of how MapQuest is evolving and responding to the changing ways people share information (location-related and otherwise) online. Now get out there and share!

We're off to Austin tomorrow for SXSW and with that comes a lot of big news, some we've already told you about such as the iPhone™ app (my.SXSW), the BBQ we're having at The Salt Lick on Sunday and the panel MapQuest is participating in. But now, the drum roll...during the Interactive Festival we will also have a sweepstakes where three lucky winners will receive an Apple® iPad™!


YOUR MISSION?: Find as many MapQuest Star buttons as you can.

WHAT IS IT?: Play MapQuest ButtonQuest and earn entries to win one of three Apple iPads!

HOW DO YOU ENTER?: MapQuest will be handing out 15 unique MapQuest star buttons over the three days of the SXSW Interactive Festival. Once you have five different buttons, go to our booth (Booth #401) and fill out an entry form. If you get 10 different buttons, we'll give you two entries. Find all 15 buttons and you'll get three entries!

WHEN IS IT?: During the SXSW Interactive Conference from Saturday, March 13 - Monday, March 15. Drawing will be held for all three iPads at 3:00 pm on Monday, March 15. As a heads-up, you must be an attendee of the SXSW Interactive conference in order to play.

WHERE ARE THE BUTTONS?: They're everywhere! Find the MapQuest team, dressed in red shirts and red hats, at various locations around Austin throughout the three days of the Interactive conference. To get you going, we'll have a different button offered each day in the MapQuest booth - so stop by!

HOW DO I FIND THE MAPQUEST TEAM?: We'll be tweeting real time letting you know where we'll be next. To help you out we've created a schedule and map of our button handout locations but there will be SEVERAL other handouts you'll only find out about via Twitter. We also have secret button carriers - so make sure to keep tuned in by following us: @MapQuestTech and @MapQuest. We'll be using the hashtag #buttonquest to announce all the locations throughout the Interactive Festival.

So, if you're headed to SXSW this weekend, take a stab at ButtonQuest for a chance to win an Apple iPad!

That was a rhetorical question. Yes, you do...especially when that application is MapQuest® 4 Mobile.

MapQuest 4 Mobile, a free app, brings over a decade of digital mapping experience to your iPhone^TM with distinguishing features to help you get where you're going. Our legendary attention to driving directions warrants a place in your starting lineup. Get the latest version (1.4) - just released - here.


New - Hands Free Directions
Auto-Advance is our latest innovation to help you get there. It improves the standard "Find Me" by using your iPhone's GPS to automatically locate you within your driving directions, recognize when you have taken a turn, and prepare you with the next maneuver - all without having to touch the screen.

Why is this good for you? Well, say you get directions from your house to where your kids are playing soccer. When you leave your street, your iPhone screen automatically changes to your next turn. Once you make that turn, you guessed it: the view changes to the next step in your directions. No hands! For a detailed explanation of how this works, visit our help site.

Also New - Energy Savings Mode
MapQuesters, headquartered in beautiful Colorado, tend to think 'green.' As such, we've introduced settings that help to reduce battery drain – a plus for a map app (these tend to use a lot of battery with the GPS).

For example, if you were driving from Denver, CO to Billings, MT, you would want the setting to be 'High Savings.' It's a long, straight drive, where you will not need the app for long stretches of time, so why waste your precious battery? Conversely, perhaps you are navigating through New York City's West Village on your way out to LaGuardia - in this case you may want to keep your screen from dimming during the journey, knowing that there are a multitude of maneuvers. In this case, you would set the app to 'Low Savings' (the default setting).

Try our new features, and find out why MapQuest 4 Mobile is different, and a must for your starting lineup.

We have launched a new MapQuest Help site that allows you to find answers to your questions, report a problem, and now even post your question to our new MapQuest Forum.

How Can It Help You?
From the MapQuest Help Site homepage you'll find quick links about New Features, Known Issues, Common Requests, and more. You can also access the forum or simply use the search box at the top of the homepage to help find an answer to your question.




Try our New Forums
Our forums enable you to post your question in a place where not only the customer service team, but also all other MapQuest employees and MapQuest users will be able to see and respond. In other words, you'll get answers from not just MapQuest, but also other users who have encountered the same issue.


From the forums, you can also browse and search for previously posted questions. Plus, if there's a topic or issue that is relevant to you, you can subscribe or create a favorite list. You can even give us ideas for new MapQuest features and products.

We are Listening!
We want you to know that we want to help you use MapQuest to its fullest potential and that we're listening! We hope that you will use the new system to ask your questions, let us know of issues with the site, give us ideas, and help your fellow MapQuest users in the forums.

If you want to learn more about how to use the MapQuest Help Site, check out our tips on How to Use Online Help. Look forward to more blog posts about how to use the new help site!

For those of you attending, check out the new SXSW iPhone app – my.SXSW iPhone – which allows you to view and build your event schedule as well as search for events/venues from your iPhone. The app includes MapQuest maps, helping you navigate to the next concert, premiere party or tech forum. You can also use the new SXSW maps online. The maps are easily filtered by category, venue and date.

During the SXSW Interactive Trade Show, attendees can stop by our booth (#401) to talk to MapQuest Developers about making their applications location enabled. For attendees who will be at SXSW Sunday, March 14th - and who are hungry - we'd like to invite you to join us for free beer and free BBQ at The Salt Lick. It's seriously the best (in our opinion) BBQ in all of Texas (and quite possibly the world). It's first come first serve, though, so check out the details on our dev blog to see how to join in the fun.

We've recently added more imagery to 360 View (an additional 13 cities and 11 suburbs), increasing our total city count to 70. Our collection of city images continues to grow as we gather more data. To see if imagery exists in your area, click on the '360 View' button at the top of the map – imagery coverage is available where the orange highlighted lines are shown on the map. Just hover your mouse and click on the thumbnail pop-up to interact with the 360 View imagery. Watch our quick demo to find out more.

So, if you're headed to Austin, TX for the South by Southwest Conference (March 12-21), be sure to check out the new 360 View imagery for your favorite meet-and-eat spots:



Or, if you're headed to the Orlando area for Spring Break, take a look at the Theater of the Stars:



Enjoy!

Gridlock, traffic, congestion- no matter what you call it, daily commuting can make the most calm among us grit our teeth, seize the steering wheel and feel our blood pressure rise at an alarming pace. We have all been there. MapQuest is dedicated to helping travelers get to their destinations. To help make the driving experience a little easier, we have teamed up with INRIX, our traffic partner, to provide additional information, tips and ways to effectively handle what can sometimes be a stressful situation – daily commuting.

1.) Check traffic before you walk out the door. In just one click you can easily see traffic conditions in most major US metro areas and make decisions about your trip. If you see your commute is going to cause your blood pressure to rise, find alternative routes or options by changing the default route we give you. Just grab the displayed route with your mouse and drag it to a different road/roads to find alternate ways to go. You might find a new way to or from work that has a better coffee shop along the way.

2.) If you are already en route, don't forget your Smartphone. With apps like MapQuest 4 Mobile you can get live-traffic updates and find the best place on the way to work to stop for gas or that cup of coffee. (The LA Times recently rated the app one of the most useful iPhone^TM apps out there.)

3.) Don't forget the power of music. A bad commute doesn't mean you have to have a bad day. Here's a playlist that should last about 45 minutes and might help make the beginning or end of your day easier and more enjoyable. Of course, everyone's music tastes are a little different. So, go to our Facebook page or Twitter feed and give us some of your favorites.

1. I Made It – Kevin Rudolph
2. No Boundaries – Kris Allen
3. Imma Be – Black Eyed Peas
4. A Moment Like This – Leona Lewis
5. Happy – Leona Lewis
6. All the Right Moves – One Republic
7. The Underdog – Spoon
8. Empire State of Mind – Jay Z
9. Bad Day – Daniel Powter
10. Me Against the World – Simple Plan
11. Boulevard of Broken Dreams – Green Day
12. You Are Not Alone – Michael Jackson
13. Happiness – Fray
14. Breakeven – Script
15. Imagine - Beatles

In addition to the tips here, check out our Facebook page for a view into what commutes from our fans across the country look like and some of their tips for staying sane – please also share yours!

How do we know all this? Well, MapQuest traffic provider, INRIX, released its National Traffic Scorecard today noting that the economic recovery is playing a role in the rise of traffic congestion across the U.S. The annual report identifies and ranks the most congested cities and the worst traffic bottlenecks.

On the surprising side of things:
• Wednesday from 8:00 to 9:00 a.m. is the busiest peak travel time nationwide
• The best day to commute is Monday
• Philadelphia made the top 10 for the first time in the history of the National Traffic Scorecard
• More than 2,500 miles of the nation's most important roads are congested more than five hours each week
• There are more than 20 hours of congestion each week or four hours each work day

For more information on the scorecard and analysis on the data check out the INRIX Traffic Scorecard.

Also, stay tuned here as tomorrow we will be posting some additional information, tips and ways to effectively handle what can sometimes be a stressful situation – daily commuting.

We at MapQuest strive to get travelers to their destinations; it's what we do. Adding MapQuest 4 Mobile to your list of must-have travel applications is a no-brainer. Obviously, we're biased, so listen to what some others are saying. ;)

Los Angelinos represent our #1 market for search traffic, so perhaps it's no coincidence that the Los Angeles Times ran a piece within the Daily Travel and Deal Blog featuring 21 travel apps worth using, and you guessed it, MapQuest 4 Mobile bats leadoff.

Add MapQuest 4 Mobile to your iPhone™ travel toolbox!

We are so excited for the start of the 2010 Winter Games that we thought it would be fun to take a closer look at the US Winter Olympic Team; so, we developed The MapQuest Olympian Hometown Map.

As you watch the Vancouver 2010 Opening Ceremonies tomorrow, you might be interested to know there are 33 states and 175 different cities represented from the US. Some of the states/cities the Olympians call home are not so surprising: Anchorage, Alaska is the hometown of four Cross Country Ski Team members and five winter athletes are from Aspen, Colorado. But, how about a bobsledder from Douglasville, Georgia or a speed skater from Memphis, Tennessee? Or even that the city of Farmington is represented by two athletes but each from a different state – Farmington, Connecticut and Farmington, Maine.

Starting today, MapQuest Business Locator, our integrated on-map search tool that shows restaurants, hotels and other search categories, now includes the hometown locations of the US Olympic team. Just click on the Olympic Torch Icon in the toolbar and you'll see all the Olympian hometowns in that area. If you don't see any icons on your map, try zooming out to a state or regional level.



So, whether you are excited about the 5-time Olympic medalist, Apolo Anton Ohno – from Seattle, WA – or you are anticipating Bode Miller's return to the slopes – Miller hails from Franconia, New Hampshire – you can see where Ohno, Miller, and all of the US athletes started their Olympic dreams with our Olympian Hometown Map. Check it out and find your hometown Olympian to cheer on during the games.

Good luck to all of the US Olympians!

As we reviewed user feedback to our previous release on MapQuest.com, we noticed that a few users didn't quite know how to use the 2 box forms we blogged about previously (see Overhauling Business Search: The First Step). Because we returned unexpected results for those users, we brought back our standard 5 box form last night. All of the other search enhancements remain. If you are interested in continuing to use the 2 box forms, you can switch to them at any time by selecting 'Use Copy and Paste Forms':


As always, if you have feedback for the MapQuest team, please visit our new forums.

Ever find yourself lost and needing directions in a jiffy? Grab your iPhone^TM and download MapQuest Navigator from the iTunes store for just $.99.

This simple and intuitive app is a no-brainer download. For less than $1 for the first 30 days, you'll receive turn-by-turn voice-guided directions to restaurants, hotels, grocery stores, bars and, of course, residential addresses as well. At the end of 30 days you do not have to renew your subscription, but, if you choose to do so, you can renew your subscription for 30 days at $3.99, 90 days at $9.99 or a year at just $29.99. Not bad considering the price of a GPS!

Downloading MapQuest Navigator is extremely easy and downloads almost instantaneously, unlike other apps that require you to download a gigabyte of data or create a user account.

We're constantly upgrading the app, too. A recent upgrade improved the local search user experience. You can now enter a business name, followed by the keyword 'near' and the location all in one line, making it easier and quicker to get to your destination (e.g., Tacos near Manhattan NY).


Need another reason to check out the app? MapQuest Navigator was recently voted as one of 100 Greatest iPhone Apps for 2009 by Mac|Life subscribers.

If you've searched for a business or landmark on MapQuest.com today, you may have noticed it's a little different. Just this morning we released a new geosearch engine to power our location search, built on top of the open source Apache Lucene project. In other words, we now have the flexibility to expand our search capabilities, helping us create a better experience for our users.

The first thing you might notice is the change on the homepage. We no longer default to a 5 box form, but instead provide 2 boxes for input. This allows you to easily copy and paste in an address.



One of the new capabilities allows us to give you, the user, a short list of results based on what we think most closely matches what you are searching for. You might see a search result appear like this:



If we don't provide you with the location you are looking for, click on the 'Show More Results' link to get a full list.

A few weeks ago, we also added a feedback link to the bottom of the search results. It looks like this:



Please click on this link whenever you search for a business and can't find it; we use this information to refine our search algorithms, making it easier for everyone to find what they really want, quickly.

And don't forget, if you ever need the phone number for your family doctor, you can quickly do a search for it by inputting 'Dr Smith' in 'Your Town, Your State' to find their information.

While we work furiously to improve your search experience on MapQuest.com, we welcome any feedback or discussion you can provide. Visit our brand new forums to join other MapQuest users interested in helping us improve our site.

There's more search improvements on the way!