Yahoo! Local & Maps Blog

Make your blog posts map-happy with the new Yahoo! Shortcuts for Wordpress (beta). This is the same treatment that you may have seen inside Yahoo! Mail, News, or Travel.

Although Yahoo! Shortcuts will provide Flickr photos for your top terms, financial charts for companies such as Yahoo! Inc., and help you find out more about that HP Pavilion dv9500t you’ve been looking at, we’re especially partial to the Yahoo! Maps shortcut.

For example, if I were to put 701 First Ave, Sunnyvale, CA in the body of my post (as I just did), the plugin will auto-detect that there is mapping context, and give me the option of having an appropriate link. Inside the shortcut (rollover the address above to see it) you can expand to a popup which has links to see a full sized map, get driving directions, and search for nearby businesses.

There’s additional discussion on Yahoo! Search Blog, and in Yodel Anecdotal, so follow the links to read more.

Michael Lawless - Sr. Product Manager Yahoo! Maps, and ylocalblog caretaker.

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