Yahoo! Local & Maps Blog

Congratulations to the Yahoo! Real Estate team on their newly updated Home Values center that launched today!  They’ve used the Yahoo! Maps AJAX API as well as the Yahoo! Local search API to create a cool mash-up that provides users with a more comprehensive view of home valuations, community insights, and local connections. 

Searching for a particular home’s value takes you to an expanded results page that features estimated home values from Zillow.com, as well as two newly formed relationships with eppraisal.com and reply.com.  This allows you to get multiple home value estimates from leading providers in order to give users a more complete view on a home’s potential value range.  The real estate team also expanded their Zillow relationship to include home data (such as beds, baths, square feet), sale history and tax info, as well as recently sold comparable homes that are plotted on the map.  Additionally, you can view nearby similar homes for sale from Y! Real Estate to better understand the ‘ask’ side of the valuation process – what are sellers asking for similar homes right now?

To tap into the knowledge of the Yahoo! community, the real estate team joined up with Yahoo! Answers in order to surface home values related questions and answers directly on Yahoo! Real Estate.  You can browse the top home values questions and best answers, view more home values Q&As, search Y! Answers for any question/answer, or ask the community a question of your own.  Using the Yahoo! Local search API, they also surface local valuation professionals to help you connect with top rated real estate appraisers in your area should you choose to get a professional home appraisal. 

Check it out and let us know what you think!
Brian Rothenberg, Product Manager, Yahoo! Real Estate

Today we’re rolling out a brand new Yahoo! Maps that has its own proprietary platform to call home. Bringing the Yahoo! Maps platform in-house gives us numerous advantages, including; global scalability, having more direct control over upgrades, easier integration of new features and user feedback, and a greater ability to improve accuracy.

The advanced functionality introduced with this new platform addresses suggestions, feature requests and bug fixes reported through the yws-maps group. Your ongoing feedback is truly appreciated, as it plays a crucial role in our development cycle.

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
  • Western Europe - Complete coverage
    Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Great Britain, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Ireland, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, France, and Italy
  • Eastern Europe – Comprehensive coverage
    Albania, Bosnia/Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, The Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia/Montenegro, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Turkey
• 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.

Stay tuned for related news over the course of 2007, as we start to work with many of our European teams to introduce new in-country Maps sites in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK. You can already take a look at Yahoo! Maps India, currently in beta, and up and running on our new platform too.

We hope you enjoy exploring the world on the new Yahoo! Maps, both globally and closer to home.

Jeremy Kreitler, Mike Lawless, Gus Maldonado, Mike Heideman, Rodney Fernandez, Ronny Choie, Jane Jao, and the Yahoo! Maps Team.

UPDATE:

Some people may not realize there are two versions of the site. The Broadband version is more feature rich, the Dialup version is most like our traditional website.

Broadband: http://maps.yahoo.com/broadband/

Dialup: http://maps.yahoo.com/dialup/

Congratulations to the Yahoo! Travel team on their latest update! Big props for the cool new way in which they have used the Yahoo! Maps AJAX API in their new Travel Guides section. This new feature displays more detailed and thematic layers right on the map, a sort of map-on-map. You can use the standard Y! Map tools, such as Pan, Zoom, and view Satellite Imagery, and Y! Travel adds a slider to control the transparency of the new map overlays.

I’ve had a chance to play with it, and think this is a really great way to add context to your trip. The old Roman Forum map is fascinating, especially used with satellite imagery, and details provided for the Grand Canyon and National Mall will certainly help you get around (or decide where to park!). Here is a screen grab from the Roman Forum, but I think you’ll need to check it out for yourself.

Right now this is just a prototype, and they’re working on getting some more maps to put online, but I think the added value of this kind of integration is readily apparent and I’m looking forward to new map overlays as they become available.

Here are some more map overlays in Yahoo! Travel.

Boston Freedom Trail
Yosemite National Park
Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site
Independence Hall
Gettysburg National Military Park
San Diego International Airport
Philadelphia International Airport

Nice work!

Mike Lawless, Sr Product Manager, Yahoo! Maps

PS Yahoo! Travel is hiring! Check out the jobs available.

In response to the I-80 and I-580 freeway connector collapse in the San Francisco Bay Area that occurred on Sunday, April 29, we responded quickly by removing these ramps from our mapping system on Monday. As a result, Yahoo! Maps is now offering alternative routes to Bay Area drivers, which are expected to be in effect for several months until repairs are completed.

Further, on published advice from the City of Oakland, yesterday Yahoo! Maps promoted the West Grand Avenue detour as the primary method of getting from the San Francisco Bay Bridge to points east, along 580. We hope this helps in planning your route. As always, our maps are to be used as a guide, so please be sure to follow relevant signs and indicators as you drive. We will be sure to stay abreast of the routing in this area and return things to normal as changes dictate.

Good luck and happy commuting,

Mike Lawless, Sr. Product Manager, and the Yahoo! Maps Team