New Yahoo Maps

Yahoo seems to have upgraded their mapping service.

Apart from the very obvious aesthetic upgrade, some of the new features seem to include automatic detection via IP, real time traffic displays, and an integrated local search function with the ability to weed out unwanted results. For instance, say I wanna find a decent pizza place - and I do; desperately - I can type in pizza to the local search function and get nothing but huts and papas back, or I can add the "-hut -papa" qualifier to my search and get some restaurants that sell something that actually resembles pizza.

The new Yahoo Maps has its problems, though. For one thing, it's a brand new Beta, which, for Yahoo anyway, means that it's a little finicky. Not everyone can be Google, though, and put out uber-functional test programs. There also doesn't seem to be a satellite or aerial photography feature, something that might be particularly useful in mapping traffic conditions. And, finally, it's based on flash or java or some other damned thing that doesn't accept the center click functionality of Firefox. This means that if I want to use the "more info" feature on a certain local search result, I can only open it in another window, rather than the preferred tab.

All in all, though, Yahoo! Local Maps Beta has strengths and weaknesses that differ enough from Google Maps and MSN Virtual Earth to make it a welcomed and useful addition to the online mapping community.

Now, back to the pizza search.