Yahoo Maps beta

CNET editors' rating: 4.0 stars Excellent
Detailed editors' rating
Setup and interface: 9.0
Features: 9.0
Performance: 0.0
Service and support: 6.0
Overall score: 8.0 (4.0 stars)
• Average user rating: 2.5 stars out of 11 reviews
• See all user reviews

Product summary

CNET editors' review

• Reviewed by:
  Troy Dreier
• Edited by:
  Elsa Wenzel
• Reviewed on: 05/25/2006
• Released on: 11/03/2005

Yahoo Maps packs in features without looking cluttered. You can create a map or a route, view satellite images, and find local businesses. We're impressed with this service, though it's still in public beta testing (you can access Yahoo's old map site here, but why?). By comparison, Google Maps, now a final product, suddenly looks so 2005 and vulnerable.

Yahoo makes it painless to track driving directions with several stops. Plus, you can view details about potentially dicey traffic situations and speeds.

It's easy within Yahoo Maps to chart a route with multiple destinations, find local attractions, discover traffic trouble spots, and drag new addresses into your search. Yahoo Maps beta uses a simple two-window layout similar to that of Google Maps, with search options and driving directions in the left pane and a map on the right. To display a map, type an address into text box A, then add point B to the second text box if you need driving directions. Additional text boxes appear as needed to easily create multipoint directions. You can also click any step in a set of directions to view a small inset map of just that step.

The Yahoo Maps beta is coded in Flash, so it takes a moment to load, and actions such as zooming in suffer a slight lag. The delay didn't bother us, even though Google Maps is faster. You can display a map as a standard line drawing, a satellite image, or a hybrid of the two and view or hide a tiny map-within-the-map. Icons above the map let you print it, e-mail it, send it to a cell phone, or show live traffic conditions.

While Yahoo's satellite views don't zoom in as closely as those on Google Maps or the Windows Live Local beta, there are no blank spots, so you can find any location in the world. Also, Yahoo beautifully smoothes its map images from different satellites better than Google does.

Yahoo Maps' links draw upon the company's wealth of local business directories. We found it more handy than Google for finding specific stores and services within a given area.

We like that Yahoo helps you find a location and things to do while you're there, thanks to its directories of businesses, community services, and transportation sources. Need a car mechanic near work? In our search, first we located CNET's office on the map. Then within the left pane of Yahoo Maps, we clicked Browse By Category and found "Auto repair and service." In a few seconds, Yahoo pinpointed the locations of 25 mechanics around downtown San Francisco. You can click a spot for details and driving directions or to rate the location for Yahoo Local. A similar search within Google Maps, which lacks the by-subject local directory links, found just a handful of auto shops.

Still, we'd like to see the Yahoo Maps beta improve a few things. For instance, Yahoo wouldn't remember addresses we'd used before, even when we marked one as our default location. The option to e-mail a map is handy, but it sends only a Web link to a map, not an image or directions. The send-to-phone feature likewise sends a text message containing a link that works only on WAP-enabled phones. Yahoo's live traffic feature, lacking within Google Maps, displays possible trouble spots but doesn't explain the length of a delay or how far traffic is backed up. We'd also like Yahoo Maps to offer the advanced routing options found on Mapquest, which help users avoid tolls or highways. Within our tests in Firefox and Internet Explorer, Yahoo Maps stalled several times, failing to communicate with its servers.

Like Google Maps and now Mapquest, Yahoo offers an open code so that developers can mix up its maps with third-party data. By the looks of the results in this gallery, people are already making impressive mashups, such as charting New York subway stops, Bay Area sneaker shops, and soccer fields in Phoenix.

As the Yahoo Maps beta is unfinished, it doesn't offer much in the way of tech support. You can click Help from the bottom of the page for FAQs and explanations of features. These pages are useful for basic tasks, but there's no way to ask a Yahoo expert a question. Rather than getting help, Yahoo wants you to provide it: use the Send Us Feedback link at the bottom of the page to suggest a feature or point out any problems.

Yahoo Maps combines the ease and fun of the groundbreaking Google Maps with Yahoo's excellent local content. While Google's bird's-eye views are closer than Yahoo's, we find the Yahoo Maps beta more convenient for finding directions with multiple stops, tracking traffic pitfalls, and linking to nearby stores and services.

See more CNET content tagged:

Google Maps,

Yahoo! Inc.,

map,

satellite image,

satellite

User reviews

• Average user rating: 2.5 stars out of 11 reviews
• My rating: 0 stars Write review

• Showing 3 of 11 user reviewsSee all 11 user reviews

• 3.5 stars

  1 out of 1 people found this review helpful

  "awesome features...just one quirk"

  by atreya19 on May 29, 2006

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• 1.5 stars

  "Stopped Working!!"

  by IKTHUSRJD on February 11, 2008

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• 4.0 stars

  "Yahoo and google have quirks"

  by psedog on July 7, 2006

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• See all 11 user reviews Write review

Where to buy Yahoo Maps beta

Visit the manufacturer's Web site to access this free service.