I’ve seen a lot of mashups in the past couple of years, but the Google Maps, Twitter, and Twittervision thing is one of the greatest I’ve seen. Not only does it seem to work very well – but the mix of live results and individual reactions is simply wonderful. And the presentation of the results (on the left of the screen) is a model of simple, clean, effective design. Not super-pretty, but more effective than all the bells and whistles generally seen at the Networks’ sites.
Rumours of Mapquest’s demise were greatly exaggerated
I subscribe to a feed from Hitwise Intelligence, an “online competitive intelligence” firm that publishes traffic analysis on various topics on a blog. Today I found this post by Heather Hopkins: US: Google Maps Making Inroads Against Leader, Mapquest. I was very surprised to learn that not only is Mapquest still a viable site, but it remains the market leader by quite a big (though shrinking) margin over Google Maps and Yahoo! Maps.
It’s surprising because I assumed that Google’s site had long since become the market leader – which it is with pretty much everyone I know. I haven’t heard of anyone using Mapquest in years – and if you go to the site, all you find is the same barely-usable interface and sketchy, jaggedy maps as always, not to mention almost useless search results and a decided lack of actual mapping features.
There are two pretty clear reminders in this case for anyone who works in online marketing: a) the market leader isn’t necessarily who you (as a specialist) assume it is, and b) a site’s market/traffic leadership doesn’t mean that it is the one to emulate. I guess incumbency status really is important, even on the net.
Bars in Montreal: 1950
Kristian Gravenor has posted a Google map that locates every bar in Montreal in 1950 in his fun blog, Coolopolis.
The Beer Hunter
has expanded to include all of Ontario, including the Ottawa area. “It’s 9:44am on Thursday. There are 18 retail outlets you can get booze
in Ottawa and the surrounding region right now [sic].”
There’s a new feature
at Google Maps: there is now a “Hybrid” view available. It’s a satellite photo but with roads labelled and highways and such colour-coded. Very slick – and it works again in Safari.
