MapQuest is a map publisher and free online Web Map Service, owned by AOL. The company was founded in 1967 as Cartographic Services , a division of R.R. Donnelley & Sons in Chicago, Illinois. It moved to Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1969. When it became an independent company in 1994, it was renamed GeoSystems Global Corporation. MapQuest was acquired in 2000 by America Online, Inc.
Donnelley began making maps with computers in the mid-1980's to generate maps for customers. Much of that code was adapted for use on the internet to create the MapQuest web service in 1996. In 1999 the company was renamed to MapQuest to leverage the brand popularity. For a while, MapQuest included satellite images, but later removed them. In September 2006, the web site once again began testing the concept in a new Beta program.
In 2004, MapQuest, uLocate, Research in Motion and Nextel launched MapQuest Find ME, a buddy-finder service that works on GPS-enabled mobile phones. MapQuest Find Me lets users automatically find their location, access maps and directions and locate nearby points of interest including airports, hotels, restaurants, banks and ATMs. Users also have the ability to set up alerts to be notified when network members arrive or depart from a designated area. In 2005 the service became available on Sprint and in 2006, Boost Mobile.
In July 2006, MapQuest created a BETA version in which users could now "Build Your Route" by adding additional stops, reorder one's route (and the stops along the way), and avoid any turn or road en route.
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Contents
- 1 Services and programs
- 2 Publishing
- 3 See also
- 4 External links
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Services and programs
MapQuest provides street-level detail and driving directions for the following countries:
- United States
- Canada
- Austria
- Belgium
- Denmark
- Dominican Republic
- France
- Haiti
- Germany
- Italy
- Luxembourg
- Mexico
- Netherlands
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- United Arab Emirates
- United Kingdom
A MapQuest-branded Yellow Pages service is provided by AOL. Other services include a world atlas, and MapQuest Mobile. MapQuest Mobile is a service providing maps and driving directions to any Web-enabled Mobile phone or Personal Digital Assistant. MSN, Yahoo! and Google have competing services as followed Google Maps, Windows Live Local and Yahoo! Maps.
Publishing
MapQuest produces and publishes a variety of Road Atlases & Maps. In addition, MapQuest publishes "private label" publications under contract with major national companies such as Barnes & Noble and also the National Park Service.
In October of 2006, MapQuest spun off its publishing division to concentrate on its online and mobile services.
