Planning on Google Maps and MapQuest

It will be that custom of humans to criticize the things of others, it happens to me that constantly I criticize Google Earth due to its inaccuracies for cadastral purposes. But in practice, we must recognize that before GoogleMaps existed, life was very different, I remember that when I went to the annual ESRI convention in San Diego, what there was was MapQuest, or at least it was popular ... and it was not so easy as now.

We're going to plan a route in Google Maps.

voy to Baltimore, to the Be 2008 Conference (hurray!), so using Google Maps we write Baltimore Convention Center, then we choose it and with the option "go from here". 

Now the hotel where I will be staying, Marriott Inner Harbor, and I put the option "up to this point"And voila, I just have to walk  one block and a half.

Hehe, now let's see where the closest Circuit City is. I select the Convention Center, and select "from here", then in the "search for businesses" label I write Circuit City and press the "search" button.

Many appear to me, I approach until I see the one that is closest to the Convention Center, I press it and choose the option "how to get"... go, go, go ...

Nothing to do with the addresses of my hometown ... "tap straight down this street (cancel), then turn to the corner where the water tank is, climb the hill where Don Pedro, then in front of the tobacconist ... "

Searching hotels in MapQuest

But let's not take the credit for MapQuest, just because it's not as popular as Google Maps doesn't mean they haven't done new things. One of the developments built into the MapQuest / Ribbit and Kayak API that has impressed me is the hotel search with integrated VOIP.

This is in InfoAcelerator / Hotel search, I choose the date of entry to the hotel and the date of departure, then the city. I can choose if I want any hotel, or be specific "only three stars", how many rooms I want and for how many people and finally I press the button "start hotel search"

The system returns me a map with all the hotels it found, I can approach the area of ​​influence of the Convention Center.

When selecting the hotel I get the price range, the phone and a button to speak directly via VOIP, that is, from the computer, using headphones and the webcam.

mmm ... very interesting. Although they wouldn't lose much by placing a url on the hotel's website.