Online Mapping Services - a comparison

This page is OBSOLETE, but is retained for historical purposes.
It was last updated in 2006, and was officially made obsolete in January 2020.

Background:

Carillons, chimes and other tower bell instruments may be found in many places throughout the world. Historically, the published descriptions of their locations have often been not very precise. This has sometimes led to confusion not only about location but even about institutional identity. Therefore, one of the author's aims in building up the site data portion of the GCNA Website has been to provide the best possible information about the location of each tower bell instrument. Mapping services available on the Internet have afforded the opportunity to communicate information about site location in a graphical way that neatly complements verbal descriptions.

However, the process of adding locator maps to site data pages, as well as that of constructing index maps of various types, has not been trouble free. Changes in mapping services (see Map Service History) and differences in the features offered by the various services have imposed significant limitations on what information could be presented and how that could be done. This page presents aspects of the various mapping services which the author has found to be significant in choosing which ones to use and in determining how to make the best use of their features.

Common features

Unless otherwise stated, all of the online mapping services described below offer(ed) the following features (though not necessarily together):

Enable creation of a map based on either a street address or a latitude/longitude coordinate pair.
Provide at least one mechanism for a user to embed a map link for a specific location in the user's Webpage, allowing a map to be generated on a new page.
Present dynamic maps, so that a visitor to that Webpage can zoom (change the map scale) or pan (shift the map area without changing scale).
An option for the visitor to print the map, typically in a special format appropriate to a black-and-white printer.
An option for the visitor to email the map. (This is often usable as a tool for building a map link to embed in a Webpage, when such an option is not given explicitly.)
An option for the visitor to obtain driving directions, sometimes on a map page generated from a user's map link. (The author has not tested or evaluated any of these.)
Contain embedded advertising, sometimes geographically related to the user's map area.

Online Mapping Services

The services are listed in the order in which they have been utilized or studied by the author. Other mapping services exist on the Internet besides those listed here. For each service, the advantages and disadvantages are listed in their order of significance to the author.

MapBlast!
MapsOnUs
Yahoo! (including Yahoo! Canada and other localizations)
MapQuest
MultiMap (UK)
StreetMap (UK)
Google
Microsoft

MapBlast

The MapBlast service, a component or subsidiary of Vicinity.com, was used from the very beginning of the development of site data pages for the GCNA Website, starting in early 1997. It is no longer available (see the Map Service History), and some of its valuable features have never appeared on any other mapping service.

Advantages

Showed latitude and longitude of map center or main icon.
Allowed map center and icon location to be separately specified.
Allowed placement of multiple (different) icons on one map by latitude and longitude (but see under Disadvantages, below).
Offered at least three different ways for users to embed free maps or map links into their own Webpages, and provided effective tools to build such maps or links.
Mapping database covered the USA and Canada in great detail, and much of the rest of the world (including all of Central and South America) to somewhat lesser detail.
Offered a wide selection of different icons, enabling graphical indication of differences between sites on the same map.
By early 2001, it was possible to place more than four icons on one map, enabling construction of useful area index pages with embedded maps.
Height and width of map could be independently controlled on both embedded and linked maps, although for a time these controls were ignored for linked maps.
When a street address was included in the map labels and the corresponding street name appeared on the generated map, that name was highlighted in red on the map.
At the ultimate zoom-in, representative street numbers were shown on most blocks of most streets.

Disadvantages

Initially only one icon could be placed on a map; a major upgrade in 1998 or 1999 allowed up to 4 icons per map; by early 2001 this restriction had been removed.
For map links, the standard MapBlast page format was complex and slow to load, even with a fast Internet connection. (This was not a problem with embedded maps.)
Unannounced changes to the services and terms of use intermittently made existing map links unusable, generally in ways that would leave unsuspecting visitors baffled about what was happening. For more details, see the Map Service History.

MapBlast sample map, specified by latitude and longitude:

MapBlast sample map, specified by street address:

MapsOnUs

This mapping service was one of the components of Switchboard.com, an online directory provider. We began using it in mid-2001, after we first found the MapBlast service to be inoperable. It is no longer available in its original form, though Switchboard offers an alternate service subcontracted from Microsoft. (See Map Service History for details.)

Advantages:

Offered two different ways for users to embed free map links into their own Webpages; one produced a dynamic map while the other produced a static map. Online help clearly described the process of building the proper HTML for a link to either kind of map.
Showed latitude and longitude of map center (dynamic map only).
Allowed up to 25 icons to be placed on a map, each with its own text.
Offered the greatest control over zoom level (dynamic map) or display scale (static map)--18 menu-selectable scales. (Actually, any scale value could be used in a link.)
Height and width and scale of map could be independently controlled.
Included separate map title (static map only).
Map pages of both types loaded faster that those of any other service which we had tried previously.

Disadvantages:

Mapping database was limited to the USA.
Only one style of icon was available (a box for the text, with pointer).
Maps could not be embedded in pages--only map links were available.
Dynamic maps carried no custom information beyond that in the box of the location icon(s).
Driving directions were available only with a static map, not with a dynamic map. (But they could go to all mapped locations - even those outside the bounds of the visible map.)

MapsOnUs sample map, dynamic:

MapsOnUs sample map, static:

(The choice of which MapsOnUs icon to use for the two different types of map was ours.)

Yahoo! Maps

Yahoo maps are one of the component services of the well-known Yahoo.com Internet company. The inability to specify an icon location by latitude and longitude makes this service unsuitable for our purposes.

Advantages:

Excellent map detail and readability.
Map page is moderately fast to load.
Offers driving directions to or from the mapped location.
Maps are available for six countries outside of the USA.

Disadvantages:

Only one location per map can be specified, and that must be done by street address.
Only one style of icon is available.
Maps cannot be embedded in pages--only map links are available.
Map is labelled only by the address associated with the icon; additional information cannot be specified in any way.
Maps are available for only six countries outside of the USA.
Map size and initial scale cannot be controlled.

Yahoo sample map:

MapQuest

This mapping service is one of the component services of the MapQuest Internet company, which also offers driving directions, road trip planning, and yellow pages. Originally, the inability to specify an icon location by latitude and longitude made this service unsuitable for my purposes. However, it was and is possible to create a map dynamically from the MapQuest Website using lat/lon in either deg/min/sec or decimal degrees. In 2005, I discovered that there is also a method (apparently not publicly documented) for specifying lat/lon in a link to MapQuest. This was initially used to provide some locator maps for Canada, where the MapsOnUs service was not available; it is now being extended to the USA.
The ability to map outside the USA and Canada has not been tested.
MapQuest also offers an online World Atlas.

Advantages:

Very good map detail, with fair readability.
Maps are available for many countries outside of the USA, though most of them do not offer street level detail.
Initial map scale can be specified (but only as one of ten zoom levels).
Offers driving directions to or from the mapped location.
Automatically adds nine-digit Zipcode (in the USA), even if Zipcode was not originally specified.
Automatically capitalizes street and city names.

Disadvantages:

Only one location per map can be specified. (Initially, that could only be done by street address, available for 14 countries as of May 2005).
Only one style of icon is available for initial specification, and it cannot be labelled, although the visitor who follows the link can then add labelled icons (in one of 20 styles) either by map click or by street address.
Maps cannot be embedded in pages--only map links are available.
Map size cannot be controlled.
Map is labelled only by the address associated with the icon; additional information cannot be specified in any way.
No pre-specified customization can be done, although the visitor who follows the link can then change the icon (to one of 20 styles), enlarge the map (to a fixed size), move the icon, and change the description from the original specification.
Does not automatically capitalize country names.
Advertising sometimes creates popup windows, which will annoy some visitors if not blocked.

MapQuest sample map (by address):

MultiMap (UK)

MultiMap appears to have originated as a UK mapping service, and as such it has particular applicability for sites in the United Kingdom. (As of Feb.2006, it offered maps for all other European countries, plus a few elsewhere; none have been tested here.)

Advantages

Shows latitude and longitude of map center.
Shows Ordnance Survey grid reference (Landranger map series) of map center.
Shows UK postcode district in which map center is located.
Shows 10000m grid reference for map center.
Has 13 zoom levels, as close as 1:5000 scale.
Can show aerial photography for most of England and Wales, and a few parts of Scotland, with floating semi-transparent pane of streetmap overlaid.
Uses the same graphical styles and details that are found in printed maps of the UK.
Supports searching by place name, postcode, street and town,
Offers driving directions.

Disadvantages

Only two sizes of map available (cannot be optimized for screen size).
Only one style of icon is available, and it cannot be labelled - a red circle around the geographic point of interest.
Does not support placement of multiple icons
Page is very cluttered with advertising, often animated.

StreetMap (UK)

StreetMap is strictly a UK mapping service, and as such it has particular applicability for sites in the United Kingdom.

Advantages

Shows latitude and longitude of point of interest.
Ordnance Survey grid reference (Landranger map series) can be deduced from map grid (but is not explicitly stated).
Uses the same graphical styles and details that are found in printed maps of the UK.
Supports searching by place name, postcode, street and town, OS grid, Landranger grid, lat/lon, or telephone code.
Offers a coordinate conversion page to display equivalents that aren't on the map page itself.

Disadvantages

Only two sizes of map available (cannot be optimized for screen size).
Has only 4 zoom levels.
Only one style of icon is available, and it cannot be labelled - an orange arrow outline pointing to the geographic spot sought.
Does not support placement of multiple icons.
Page is somewhat cluttered with advertising, some of it animated.

Google Maps

This mapping service became useful when Google published an Application Programming Interface (API) specification for it in 2005; soon it was wildly popular with third-party developers.

Advantages:

Excellent map detail and readability.
Maps are available worldwide.
Overlays of aerial photography are optional.
Uses a software technology which enables dynamic changes to a map without reloading the entire Webpage. (Panning is especially smooth.)

Disadvantages:

Works with only a few Web browsers (though those are among the most popular).
Displaying more than one point per map requires sophisticated programming techniques using the API.
Graphical interface does not reveal lat/lon of search results (though that can be found from a custom map which uses the API; but then the search feature is not available).
The level of detail in the maps varies widely by country.
The level of detail in the aerial photography varies widely, even within a single country (such as the USA).

Microsoft

As originally made available, Microsoft MapPoint did not offer any useful way to link from a Webpage to a map of a pre-specified location. Recent changes in response to competition from Google Maps have resulted in a new service called Windows Live Local; this has not been tested for applicability to our purposes.

Once upon a time, the following information seemed relevant. With the demise of MapBlast, it isn't; but it remains here as a historical curiosity. (But see the Postscript below.)

NOTE: There appears to be a discrepancy between maps from MapsOnUs and those from MapBlast in terms of the latitude and longitude of observed features. It amounts to as much as 4 seconds of longitude (approximately 300 feet east-west at mid-latitudes) and as much as 1/2 second of latitude (approximately 75 feet north-south), depending on location. It is not yet known why this discrepancy occurs, nor how it varies, nor which maps are more accurate with respect to any official standards for geographical reference. The impact on our locator maps is as follows:

On site data pages which have only a MapBlast locator map, the icon is visually located as accurately as I know how, as described in Map Use Hints for MapBlast. The icon used reflects how accurate I believe I have been in doing that.
On pages which have locator maps for both services, there are two possibilities. To determine which of the possibilities applies, pass your mouse over the different map links and observe the latitude and longitude values embedded within the links. (These will be a pair of two- or three-digit numbers followed by up to seven decimal places.)
- If the latitudes and longitudes of the map centers are the same to the last decimal place, it's generally not possible to determine which has the most accurate display. In some cases, the MapsOnUs locators were constructed using the existing lat/lon from the MapBlast locator, while in other cases the MapsOnUs locators were determined first and their lat/lon was used to construct the MapBlast locator.
- If the latitude and longitude of the map centers are different, then either (a) they have been independently determined based on visual appearance, and both are equally accurate from a visual standpoint, or (b) the MapBlast location was determined first based on visual appearance, and the MapsOnUs location was determined from it by rounding down to five decimal places.
If there is a discrepancy between the locators for a particular site, it will only be visible at the closest one or two zoom levels. For most purposes, i.e., at higher zoom levels, either service will be sufficiently accurate.

Postscript: With the advent of Google Maps, I've found that some old locations which appeared visually correct at the time are not correct now. This confirms that one of the former services was in error in its display of lat/lon values.

Disclaimer: Although the opinions stated above were developed by me during the course of my pro bono work as Co-Webmaster for the GCNA, those opinions are entirely my own and have not been endorsed by any other person nor by the GCNA. They are presented here solely to illuminate some of the paths which I have attempted and chosen in the course of that work.

/signed/ Carl Scott Zimmerman

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This page was created 2002/03/08 and last revised 2006/03/17.

Please send comments or questions about this page to csz_stl@swbell.net.