MapQuest

» see mapquest.com as it lived, on the wayback machine

~ the obit ~

MapQuest launched in february 1996. It was the first web service that let you type in two addresses and get back actual driving directions. Before that, you had to use a paper road atlas, or you had to call somebody who lived where you were going.

For about ten years it was the way people did this. AOL bought it in 2000 for 1.1 billion dollars. The deal made sense at the time. AOL had a lot of users who wanted to print directions before going on a trip, and mapquest had the data and the brand.

I used it before my first trip abroad in 2003, going from istanbul to berlin via ground transport at one point and needing local maps. I printed out maybe eight pages of step-by-step directions on a4 paper. There was always one wrong turn somewhere on page five that would send you 30 km in the wrong direction. The map images were small and pixelated. We just dealt with it.

~ the rap sheet ~

~ how it actually worked ~

You opened the site. You typed in a starting address and a destination address. You clicked "get directions". After a few seconds it gave you a list. "Head north on whatever street for 0.4 miles, turn left onto x road, continue for 6.2 miles." There was a tiny map next to each step that you could not really read. There was an overview map at the top that was also too small to be useful.

Then you printed it. The print version was different from the screen version. It tried to fit on the page properly. Sometimes it succeeded. Then you took the printout in the car and held it up at every intersection.

The whole experience was clunky. But there was no alternative. You either did this, or you got lost.

~ how it died ~

Google Maps launched in february 2005. Within about three years it had completely taken over. The reason was simple. Google's data was better, the maps actually loaded properly with real detail, and you could pan around them on the screen. Mapquest had been a list of text directions with thumbnail maps. Google Maps was a map you could actually look at.

Then the iphone happened in 2007. Then turn-by-turn gps navigation showed up on phones around 2009 to 2010. By that point the whole concept of printing directions before leaving the house was dead. You just got in the car, opened your phone, typed the address, and went.

Mapquest tried to keep up. They added their own pannable maps. They made an app. None of it mattered. Once the people who set the defaults (browser homepages, AOL portal links) moved away, the audience evaporated.

~ it is technically still alive ~

You can go to mapquest.com right now. It works. You can type in two addresses and get directions. The site is owned by a company called System1, who bought it from Verizon in 2019. The traffic is mostly people in the US over 50 who have been using it since 1998 and never switched.

But nobody under 35 has any reason to ever open it. The whole product is a museum piece you can still log into. That is its own kind of death.