Map bliss

I recently blogged about the goodness of Google's new map service and how its interface was better than any other I'd used so far. I also mentioned their acquisition of Keyhole who have the market sewn up on jaw-dropping desktop satellite imagery. Now of course they have combined the two and you can now see an aerial image of exactly where your map view is showing.

But... its not as high res as the Keyhole images, and they don't overlay the two sets of data in anyway. Keyhole alone overlays roads, Yellow Pages information and even terrain data but then Keyhole isn't a web based application and requires a damned fat pipe to keep it fed with data so Google maps is so far a useful compromise.

But... I do recall seeing satelite imagery available once before on either Yahoo Maps or Mapquest, and I do recall seeing a web interface to Keyhole although not nearly as dynamic as the current Google one. So I think an even better Google maps is surely not far behind.

One feature I notice they are lacking - traffic data. It turns out that Yahoo is no plugged into local traffic flow information providers and is showing quite detailed information in certain areas. So you can now get your map, plot your directions and check the traffic conditions. What remains to be seen is whether Yahoo can make their routing software take account of traffic - most route finding algorithms are pretty lame when it comes to stuff like adding in requirements such as "fastest route" or "shortest route".

I have come across routing software (mostly for the desktop) that let you avoid freeways entirely but I don't think I've ever seen the option to avoiding or use specific highway routes, so I think taking account of current freeway traffic conditions and journey times will be a big leap for all those map people to make. If anyone is a candidate to roll out some really intelligent routing options surely it would be Google - but for now it seems like they are somewhat preoccupied with integrating all that sexy, but perhaps not quite so useful satelite and aerial imaging technology from Keyhole.