coolest… webapp… ever… Google Maps
by Kevin Dangoor
Maybe the headline is a little superlative… but, wow. Google Maps is really, really cool. Even better, it’s cool in a useful way. They made it easy to zero in on the area you want (even using the keyboard if you wish), and then, when you search, it searches in that area! The visuals are great.
Graphics are cool, but local search isn’t so good. I located where I live and did a search for “coffee” (I live in Seattle). It found the two closest independent shops, but all the rest were “Tully’s”, the closest 2 miles away. The yellow pages at A9.com found 10 shops within 1 mile of my house, including 1 Starbucks. Makes me wonder whether Tully’s (a major chain in Seattle) paid for placement and Starbucks didn’t.
http://map.search.ch/index.en.html is slightly cooler: it has aerial pictuers in the background.
You’re right about that Swiss map being a bit cooler looking. Google’s integration with search is a bit more useful, but still the geewhiz factor of zooming in and seeing the aerial view is impressive.
Regarding the local search not getting as many hits: you may be right about that, though I’m pretty sure Google will catch up. I wasn’t looking so much at the quality of the search results this morning as I was just looking at the overall niftyness of the app.