Yahoo Maps vs. Google Maps

August 2, 2006 – 9:01 am by Matt Radel
Filed under Rants

This past weekend I made a trek into Indiana, territory that I’m not very familiar with at all. So, like all good internet savy folk, I wanted to print out the directions for my journey. I’ve have come to rely upon Google Maps pretty heavily, as I love the interface and speed that the service provides. I started my search there, but for some reason that day I was feeling saucy.

I wanted to try something different, just to make sure that Google really was the place for me. I’d given up on Mapquest long ago, as it could never figure out the one way streets of downtown Cincy. But I’d never really given Yahoo a try, and it’s directions in this case seemed to be significantly easier. So click, print and I was on my way. No sweat right? Wrong.

Yahoo took me 34 miles (that’s 68 round trip, better than an hour) in the opposite direction.

When I finally stopped to ask for directions, the locals (who where very helpful, thanks to the fella at the Shell station in Rushville) couldn’t help but laugh. The funny thing was I performed the same search on Yahoo 24 hours later with the same addresses(no, there wasn’t any user error. I used what was in my browser’s memory), and guess what it returned? A carbon copy of what was on Google(which was exactly right by the way). I’d scan in the print out of the directions I got from Yahoo the first time and compare ‘em to prove it to ya, if that print out wasn’t decomposing on the side of I-74 as I write this.

So in the end I lost money on fuel, lost my temper, almost lost my plastic shield on the underside of my front bumper (as I was turning around in a median on 74 in a frantic effort to retrace my steps) and most of all, I lost my faith in Yahoo Maps. Oh, Google Maps. I’ll never stray from you again! Well, at least not until you srew me over.

Yahoo Maps vs. Google Maps
August 2, 2006 – 9:01 am by Matt Radel