
MapQuest still exists - altern8
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/does-mapquest-still-exist-as-a-matter-of-fact-it-does/2015/05/22/995d2532-fa5d-11e4-a13c-193b1241d51a_story.html?tid=hpModule_79c38dfc-8691-11e2-9d71-f0feafdd1394
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mintplant
Google is the "always online" company. So MapQuest should be the anti-Google:
make a good, free offline maps app. All of the ones I've tried (on Android, at
least) either had too little detail or a cumbersome user interface. But all of
them were promoted to me directly by word-of-mouth. Make a great one, and
people _will_ spread it around. Become the fanatic's map app. The MapQuest
brand could have the perfect retro-niche appeal for this.

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jedmeyers
Have you tried HERE maps?

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mladen5
HERE maps are very nice, they are Nokia/Microsoft and app is very polished on
Android. Only thing is Google Maps have slightly better routing options.

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shalmanese
Reviving MapQuest seems about as likely to me as AOL reviving it's dialup
business. The simple fact is that the quality bar has risen to the point where
maps have become a pay to play space with serious table stakes. You can't just
buy a bundle of 3rd party data, slap a nice UI on it and call it a day
anymore. Maybe MapQuest could do something unique with merging it's brand name
with OSM but even that seems like a pretty faint possibility.

I have no doubt they could manage to remain profitable for some ungodly amount
of time by relying on pure inertia from their legacy customers. But trying to
find meaningful ways to grow the brand seems like throwing good money after
bad.

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qbrass
After spending 10 minutes trying to find where Google moved their menu so I
could print directions, (I completely missed the hamburger menu blended into
the text box) I gave up used MapQuest instead.

Instead of focusing on the quality of their map data, MapQuest can just
compete by not ruining their UX.

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clarky07
the real question here is, what was the reason for printing directions? I
think I also used MapQuest the last time I printed directions, 7 or 8 years
ago? My phone just tells me when i need to turn now....

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tedunangst
My phone isn't 8x11.

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clarky07
tablet? :-)

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superuser2
Cellular data for a tablet (or mobile hotspot) is upwards of $20/mo for many
people. I would venture that the majority of tablets in existence are WiFi
only devices and not useful on the highway.

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gs7
Slightly off topic but if you're annoyed with the new Google Maps you can
still use the classic version at
[https://maps.google.com/lochp](https://maps.google.com/lochp).

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ghshephard
I find this hard to believe:

 _" Though MapQuest still has the second-highest share of the domestic market
in online mapping, about 25 percent"_

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dopamean
I worked at two companies in the last 3 years that both used MapQuest a lot.
Both companies had fleets of drivers (one had about 200 trucks and the other
had about 500). The first was pretty low tech and just distributed MapQuest
printouts to drivers that had to go somewhere. The other was quite a bit more
technically sound and had a pretty cool dispatching and routing system. All
the maps were rendered using MapQuest. I was pretty surprised but in both
cases it seems that these companies started doing things that way before
Google Maps took off and they just stuck with what worked for them.

I know its anecdotal but I think it could point to something. The first
company was in central Florida and the second was in NYC. They were also in
completely different industries.

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ghshephard
Fair enough - perhaps the "Legacy" domestic market is bigger than I would
imagine/believe.

But, I can say this - MapQuest doesn't have much of an international presence.
I just typed, "10 Anson Road, Singapore" (and then "10 Anson Road, Singapore,
Singapore" just for safe measure) - It showed me a map of Norwalk, CT.

So, even if I wanted to try it - pretty much out of luck.

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dopamean
That makes me wonder if the stat about 25% was referring to a specific market.
Like the US or something.

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Doctor_Fegg
Yes, the US - "domestic"

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petethered
Anyone know what mesh lounge chair that is in the picture?

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petethered
Self reply since answer found on Reddit: A Kimble Office Fit

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miguelrochefort
I've been using their API just last week.

As far as I know, this is the only free service for driving distances that can
be used with maps other than Google's.

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mayneack
open street map?

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porjo
Openstreetmap doesn't provide driving distances or routing itself. Project
OSRM uses Openstreetmap data to provide this service: [http://project-
osrm.org/](http://project-osrm.org/)

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maxerickson
There are many projects[1] and services[2] using OSM data for route planning.
As your sibling comment mentions, Mapquest Open is among them.

[1]
[http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Routing#Developers](http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Routing#Developers)

[2]
[http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Routing/online_routers#Ro...](http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Routing/online_routers#Route_services_with_public_instances)

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porjo
I don't disagree. mayneack indicated that he/she thought OSM provided an API
for driving distances (they don't).

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sgnelson
I currently work for a bureaucracy that requires that all trips to be mapped
ONLY on MapQuest, in order to turn it in to be compensated for the travel. I
haven't figured out why. (It's a state bureaucracy, logic isn't their strong
suit. They still pay for long distance phone calls, and have to document all
long distance phone calls.)

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megawac
Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems that they can maybe also replace TomTom
with location tracking services from Verizon - probably yielding a
ridiculously comprehensive tracking for North America (subject to ToC, I'm not
a lawyer).

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mkoryak
opened the website.

what the fuck am I doing in florida (I'm in Boston)?

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