The business models for Yahoo Maps (http://maps.yahoo.com/) and
MapQuest (http://www.mapquest.com/) are very similar in that they are
both advertising driven. Their objective is to drive traffic to their
web pages by providing a useful service, in this case online maps, and
selling advertising to display along with the maps. Yahoo Maps serves
the additional purpose of driving traffic to the Yahoo portal, while
MapQuest has elected to remain independent for the time being.
MapQuest also provides online mapping services to a number of
companies, including Evite.com and A9.com.
Both companies offer advertisers the attraction of having the option
of displaying ads based on the geographical data a visitor is
providing. MapQuest's rate card, available at
http://www.mapquest.com/mediakit/ratecard.htm, shows the types of ads
and their cost that can be purchased by advertisers. MapQuest is able
to charge a premium price for its ads that are displayed based on the
location information provided by a visitor. This geotargeting can be
done by map location or destination. The ads appear in various
different forms, including boxes to the sides of the map, links
beneath the map, pop ups, and graphics added directly to the map.
Both companies are seeking to exploit their knowledge of location
provided by the visitor to provide all different types of information
about the requested location. Yahoo Maps has recently added traffic
information for most major cities, while MapQuest "... allows MapQuest
Mobile subscribers to send color maps and driving directions from
MapQuest.com directly to their cell phones." Both services provide a
way for the visitor to access information about businesses and
services available in the area they are viewing on the map. Yahoo
Maps does an excellent job of integrating the requested information
about businesses and services into the map display itself, whereas
MapQuest displays a separate list of businesses meeting the criteria.
Driving directions have long been a staple of both sites.
"MapQuest Makes It Harder to Get Lost" by Tim Gray,Internetnews.com
(January 7, 2005) http://www.internetnews.com/ec-news/article.php/3455991
A9.com, a search subsidiary of Amazon, has gone one step further by
not only providing online maps, but by also providing actual
photographs of city blocks "...of currently more than 10 US cities
using over 20 million photographs." They hope to at some point have
the entire country captured digitally. If consumers find this service
useful, Yahoo Maps and MapQuest will likely seek to provide something
similar. At present, MapQuest powers the online maps for A9.com
"Here is how we did it" A9.com http://a9.com/-/company/YellowPages.jsp
All of the other competing online mapping sites operate using a
similar business model of selling space to advertisers to display
advertisements to visitors, optionally employing location data
provided by the visitor.
"Maps On Us" (http://www.mapsonus.com/) provides maps, driving
directions, locally targeted advertising, general advertising, and the
ability to display the locations of various types of businesses and
services on a map.
"Multimap.com" (http://www.multimap.com/) provides maps of the entire
globe and is oriented towards clicking through maps to zoom in on a
location as well as providing a specific address. General advertising
is provided, along with map scale, latitude and longitude information,
local weather, and local transportation information.
"Mapblast.com" (http://www.mapblast.com/) powers MSN Maps & Directions
and provides little more than basic maps and directions, along with
general and locally targeted advertising.
These are the major additional online mapping sites located via a
Google search on the term "maps."
Sincerely,
Wonko |
Clarification of Answer by
wonko-ga
on
09 Feb 2005 13:41 PST
Maps.google.com did not appear in my search results, so I was unaware
of it. Currently in beta status through Google Labs
(labs.google.com), Google Maps apparently launched on February 8,
2005.
"Explore Google Maps" ://www.google.com/help/maps/tour/ describes
the features available. The draggable nature of the maps and the
"floating bubble with a magnified view" associated with driving
directions are the most novel capabilities of Google Maps. The
various means of searching for a map are also structured somewhat
differently from the primarily address-driven approach of competing
web sites. I noticed that additional businesses do not pop up when
the map is dragged. The web site indicates that many more features
will become available, but there is no material hinting at what they
might be.
Although no advertising is present in the beta version, presumably
there will be some at some point, especially once it is released in a
production version. The mapping feature is valuable to Google in the
same way that Yahoo Maps is valuable to Yahoo in that it can encourage
more traffic to the Google family of web sites. Google's primary
source of revenues is online advertising, so driving traffic to its
sites by providing valuable services is crucial to its success.
Thank you for pointing this out to me. I really like the draggable maps.
Sincerely,
Wonko
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