Roundtable Tech Talk: Mapquest.

The world of global positioning satellite providers is booming. With applications from Google, Microsoft, ALK Technologies and AOL, there is much to choose from when it comes to personal or business level of geographical solutions. However for the the Round Table Tech Talk discussion, I chose to focus on the consumer level map, GPS, and directions provider Mapquest. An affiliate of AOL, Mapquest got its roots from a cartographic service(Donnelly and Sons) which provided computer based map and terrain solutions for business applications. In the 1990's Mapquest became one of the major players to provide directions and maps over the web to end users using the already mentioned technology, although adapter for the Internet. In 2000 America Online already together with Time Warner Cable acquired Mapquest.
The focus of the discussion is to outline the important changes and improvements to the Mapquest Beta site. New additions such as:

• Mapquest Navigator 5.0
• Mapquest Gas Prices
• Send to Cell Capabilities
• Find Me feature (Launched in 2006 joint venture with Nextel)
• Walking or Driving Directions Capability in Real Time
• Hybrid View(Similar to Google Earth/Maps)
• Advanced Routing

Many of these features can be found on the Mapquest Blog: http://blog.mapquest.com/

Clearly a web site such as Mapquest is a mashup in the sens of including many useful features which create a truly universal application which can be accessed through a computer or via WAP on a mobile enabled device(ie: cellular phone/smart phone).