Sunday, November 27, 2005

Do You Know MapQuest.com?

Here are some interesting facts about MapQuest Inc. that I read today at news.yahoo.com:

  • MapQuest's roots date to 1967, when it was the cartographic division of the publisher R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co. before becoming an independent company. In pre-Internet days, the group made the road maps that were distributed free at gas stations as well as the computerized TripTik system for AAA.

  • MapQuest.com went live Feb. 5, 1996, and started trading shares publicly three years later.

  • Of all people going to mapping sites, 71 percent visited MapQuest.com in September, roughly even from a year ago, according to comScore Media Metrix. Yahoo Inc. drew 32 percent, also about the same as last year, while new arrival Google Inc. had a 25 percent share.

  • The number going to mapping sites leaped 33 percent to 51.3 million in the last year.

  • MapQuest.com was acquired by America Online Inc. in 2000.



MapQuest.com has been seeing stiff competition from Google Maps, Google Earth, MSN Virtual Earth, Yahoo Maps and Amazon A9. What MapQuest.com needs is innovation to stay ahead of the mapping competition, in which it's already a leader. MapQuest Inc. is heading toward its 10th year anniversary of its website. Go MapQuest.com!

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