Yahoo! Local & Maps Blog

We have seen countless users struggle to find what they’re looking for in a specific area or neighborhood using current local search and online maps products (ahem…ours included). The results may be spread over too wide an area or not in a specific enough area.

While we have had refinement options to help users narrow by distance or neighborhood for a long time in Yahoo! Local, this required the user to make the refinement selections and run their search again. This is certainly useful in many cases, but it is a cumbersome way to explore and compare results in different areas.

What users really wanted was a way to visually explore the results on the map more directly. And now they can with the release of a unique and innovative search circle in Yahoo! Local.

To see the search circle in action, let’s suppose you’re looking for Chinese restaurants in San Francisco. You type in the query and get a set of results:

Not bad, but these restaurants are scattered across the city and you really want to see what’s closer to Golden Gate Park. So you click on the ‘Expand Map’ link to get a more detailed map view:

This is where the search circle really changes things. Now you immediately see how wide the search area is but can easily narrow this down…

…and just as easily drag the circle closer to Golden Gate Park…

…or perhaps you’re wondering if there’s a Chinese restaurant within roughly a one mile radius of the beach? No problem, just shrink the circle down a bit (it dynamically calculates the radius in miles) and drag the search circle again – it will even automatically pan the map if you hit the map edge…

What would once have been a much more difficult task has now become incredibly easy. So go ahead, try it out and figure out just how many Chinese restaurants, banks or nail salons are within a one mile radius of your house. We think you’ll like it, but as always, please let us know either way. We’re always looking for feedback (the good and the bad) from our users.

Tom Wailes, Yahoo! Local UED

The Yahoo! Maps team is happy to announce the single biggest imagery update on maps.yahoo.com since the program inception.  While we’ve steadily added new cities around the world every month (over 500 now) since the beginning, we haven’t made as much of a change in the US until today.  Our latest release improves both breadth and depth.

Going wide, we’ve made big improvements in our wall-to-wall coverage of the United States, improving our back-drop data for a number of complete states, including California, Oregon, New York, the Carolina’s, and numerous other states in the west and midwest.  State-wide, you’ll see an improvement in freshness, color and clarity.  Here’s an example up at McCloud, CA, which is a beautiful part of California near Mt. Shasta.

Going deep, and I think more importantly, we’ve enabled up to 2 extra zoom levels of aerial photography and satellite imagery for the Satellite button for hundreds of cities around the US.  Not only can you see more detail, but in many places the imagery has gotten a welcomed refresh as well.  To see what I mean, check this out new view of Denver City Hall.

I’ve always believed that satellite and aerial imagery adds an important context to understanding our maps and driving directions, and with this update, I hope you’ll agree with me that this feature is even more useful.

Cheers,

Michael Lawless, Sr. Product Manager, Yahoo! Maps

We’ve been working hard all winter long, and  today, we’ve rolled out an update to Yahoo! Maps that delivers a number of improvements including; new neighborhood data, expanded worldwide coverage, and stylistic improvements.

Some of the improvements you might notice as you test-drive our updated Yahoo! Maps include:

• New Neighborhood Data at lower zoom levels with:
• > 300 cities with new neighborhood data added throughout North America, from Palo Alto, to Chicago, to Toronto, etc.
• > 12,000 new neighborhoods added, from “Lower East Side” (New York, Milwaukee, Bridgeport) to “Lower Collegetown” (Ithaca)
• Expanded Worldwide Coverage with much improved coverage, especially throughout Eastern Europe
• New POI information - highlighting Schools, Rest areas, Ski Resorts, etc.
  Additional shaded relief levels worldwide
• City label density increased for better usability
• Style improvements such as Hybrid Road and Label colors adjusted for better legibility
• Lighter map tiles – with an average of 30-60% reduction in size  

Stay tuned for continued updates and improvements throughout 2008.  Check it out and let us know what you think!

Cheers!

Gus Maldonado - Sr. Product Manager, Yahoo! Geo/Maps

One of the most requested updates at the Yahoo! Developer Network is to upgrade the Maps API’s to support Actionscript 3.  In fact, over 500 of you have voted for this, and your wish is our command.  Starting today, you’ll now be able to work with a native AS3 mapping component, brought to you by our own Zach Graves, Yahoo! Maps and the YDN.

Highly compact at only 30kb, this component won’t weigh your widget down, and those of you who know AS3 know that a native component handles raster graphics and overlays with ease, greatly improving performance. The new api supports complex custom markers, local search, geocoding, and of course maps, satellite and hybrid out of the box.

Take a look at the YDN release information where there’s more info, examples, and a couple of screencasts, and for you developers looking for the Flash edge, you’re welcome.

Michael Lawless
Sr. Product Manager - Yahoo! Maps

Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, us insiders know that the difference between Hwy 101 and Hwy 280 is like the difference between the mall ring-road on the Saturday before Christmas and the Autobahn. Some of us will go through some awfully long detours just to get to our favorite freeways, but it’s not always easy to know the best way to get there. It can also mean that online maps aren’t as relevant because you might be coming at your destination from an unexpected direction.

Now following your favorite freeway on Yahoo! Maps is as easy as drag & drop. Once you get your directions to your destination, if you don’t quite like what you see, you can pick up your route and drop it somewhere else, and we’ll drive you through the area you select in the most efficient manner. If that’s still not quite right, you can tug on the route again until it’s perfect. Of course you can undo your through-points whenever you like, or go back to your original route. We’ll even tell you the difference in mileage and estimated time between your personalized route and our fastest route. This would be great for long trips where you want to see some interesting detours or scenic routes.

In addition to our personalized routes, we’ve made a few other changes. Searching for businesses on a map just got more informative. Inside the business popups on the map there are now photos and user review quotes, and we’ve also re-formatted the list view to make it easier to understand your results. Yahoo! Maps is now a bit faster, and we’ve fixed a couple of our favorite pet-peeves, like being able to save as many addresses as you’d like.

We hope you like the new functionality.

Happy drag & dropping,

Michael Lawless - Sr. Product Manager, Yahoo! Maps

August 29th, 2006 was an exciting day for us; it was the day after Flickr first announced their Geotagging feature using the Yahoo! Maps API, and they had exceeded their first month projection of 1 million geotagged photos in a single day. It goes to show that putting pictures and places together go hand-in-hand like peas and carrots, Bonnie and Clyde… You get the idea.

Today Flickr released two new maps-related features. The new Flickr Places pages will take some of the 30+ million publicly geotagged photos already uploaded and organize them into key themes for over 100,000 locations. Each Places page features interesting photos and photographers, related Flickr Groups, and the tags that make that area unique.

The maps page itself gets a great upgrade as well, with an improved world map where people can easily view popular and up-to-date themes. Clicking on any of these hot tags will take you to a selection of current photos from that area, tagged with more detailed information. This will provide a great visual lens into the latest interesting things happening around the world.

These new features further demonstrate our commitment to a global platform and will be available in English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, Korean, and traditional Chinese.

Michael lawless

Sr. Product Manager, Yahoo! Maps

Now, in India, we drive a little differently. We drive on the left. Or the right, if the left is occupied. We also give directions a little differently. “Third right after the big banyan tree on your left” might leave many bemused, but is guaranteed to lead the lost out here. Starting today, you can search for driving directions — “Indian Style” — anywhere in India on the Yahoo! India Maps Site.

We’ll tell you directions with landmarks to watch out for while taking turns. We’ll also tell you how many turns come before the one you have to make. So, go and take this feature out for a test drive and tell us what you think. If you, like us, spend a good portion of our lives arguing with auto rickshaw drivers on the correct fare, then you’ll be pleased to see the auto fare calculation along with the driving directions. Enough said. Time for you to take a serious look at making this trip.  115 steps on the map, but a journey of a lifetime.

Siddharth Vijayakrishnan,
Product Manager, India Maps

As mentioned in the May 8, 2007 post, the Yahoo! Travel team has been working on a map-on-map feature which enriches our Yahoo! Maps by overlaying independent map images to add more details and context to our base maps.

Now, that same team has further developed the map-on-map feature into the sharable application called MapMixer. This means that anyone who has a map in .jpeg, .gif, or .png format can now upload their map onto a background of Yahoo! Map and mix it, blend it, or customize it. The app gives users tools to adjust transparency, pin-point chosen locations for accurate overlaying and placement, stretch, rotate, zoom, and pan.

If you’re planning a picnic at the park for a group of friends, you can mix your own map of the park’s amenities to pick the best spot and give directions to it. If you’re a tour guide, you can upload images of your route and key sights. If you are showing the past as it relates to the modern-day, add public domain historical maps.

There are endless uses for MapMixer. Take a look at what others have done to customize Yahoo! Maps on the Featured Maps page, and then try it for yourself.

Congrats to Adam Chang, Nimit Maru, and the Yahoo! Travel team who put this great service together.

Michael Lawless - Sr. Product Manager, Yahoo! Maps

If you happen to be the proud owner of a shiny new Mercedes-Benz with Tele Aid, then you should be pleased to hear about our new Send to Car feature, which allows addresses and businesses found on Yahoo! Maps to be sent directly to your Mercedes-Benz vehicle through their new Search & Send program.

Starting today, a new ‘Send to Car’ link joins ‘Send to Phone’ and ‘Send by Email’ in the dropdown menu on Yahoo! Maps, and it’s super easy to use in two ways:

1. Just enter an address or get driving directions on Yahoo! Maps as you normally would. Click the “Send to Car” link, and select which (if more than one) address or addresses you’d like to download to your vehicle. Edit the title of the address if you’re so inclined and finally, enter the email address of your car and hit send
2. Or, you can send business information directly from their popup window when you use “Find a Business on the Map.” Search for businesses by keyword or by name, such as “dry cleaners” or “Pizzeria Uno” and click “Send to Car” on the in-map popup and follow the same instructions above.

Once in your vehicle, simply push the i-button, and the address information will be downloaded directly to your navigation system. You will be prompted to begin routing immediately, or save the address for later use.

One of the best uses for this feature is not only to send yourself addresses to use later, but to have friends and family send you addresses while you’re on the road when you need them, so you don’t have to worry about writing down information as you drive, or pull over to enter addresses yourself.

We were pleased to work with Mercedes-Benz as the first automobile manufacturer in our new Send to Car feature, and we think this new bridge between the comfort of your own keyboard and your in-car nav system is the best of both worlds.

Michael Lawless – Sr. Product Manager, Yahoo! Maps

As proclaimed yesterday by c|net, “The Webware 100 awards recognize the best Web 2.0 apps.” So, it’s my pleasure to share with you that Yahoo! Maps has been named a winner in the Reference category for 2007.

We’ve made a number of improvements in the last few months, including an improved mapping platform, better design, mobile offerings, and new international streets and satellite imagery. While we’re always excited about the direction our product is headed in, we still count on your feedback to make the product more useful and easier to use. We will continue to improve the technology, interface, and features that matter to you most, particularly focusing on being the most accurate mapping service available.

More details on our award win and the other 99 top Web 2.0 apps can be found here.

We hope you’ll continue to help us make Yahoo! Maps the best mapping system out there. If you haven’t yet used the Yahoo! Maps and Local suggestion board, check it out.

Cheers!

Michael Lawless, Sr Product Manager, Yahoo! Maps