Again as if Nothing Had Happened
Virtually people probably remember using MapQuest to impress out driving instructions when they wanted to go where they needed to go during the late 1990s and early 2000s. The technology was far more useful than pulling out your parents' large road maps that y'all couldn't figure out how to refold. Simply the invention of Google Maps and other engineering science appears to accept made MapQuest obsolete for many. Or did it?
While you may think MapQuest is a thing of the past, the company is notwithstanding alive and well today and may fifty-fifty have a great future ahead. Learn well-nigh the history of MapQuest, the ways Google Maps inverse its path and where the company is now.
The History of MapQuest
While about people remember MapQuest originated in the late 1990s, its origins really date back to 1967. It started in Chicago as Cartographic Services, a division of R.R. Donnelley & Sons, eventually moving to Pennsylvania and later, Denver. By the 1980s, the company made maps and routes for its customers. Information technology wasn't until 1996 that the internet company known as MapQuest was built-in out of that history.
Initially, the website featured an interactive atlas and a driving-directions site called TripQuest. Past the end of the decade, MapQuest was traded on Nasdaq and was just as of import as other early on internet companies, similar MySpace and America Online. At the end of 1999, America Online (AOL) purchased MapQuest for $1.one billion.
By the mid-2000s, MapQuest released the MapQuest Find Me service, which worked with GPS-enabled mobile phones. In 2007, the company partnered with OnStar, providing services that allowed users to send their route information to OnStar'southward navigation devices.
The Emergence of Google Maps
While MapQuest continued to compete, the debut of Google Maps in 2005 presented a trouble for the company. People who used Google Maps felt that it was easier to interact with, and they liked that they could do more than search for directions from Indicate A to Point B. Google Maps besides provides a glimpse of the entire world, while MapQuest is quite limited beyond the boundaries of North America.
In the end, Google invested more money and fourth dimension into its services, while AOL but experimented with MapQuest but didn't make the same amount of effort to bring the company into the 2010s. Past 2009, Google Maps was the preferred mapping site for most users.
MapQuest Today
Despite falling behind Google, MapQuest is even so in performance today. The company holds the second-highest share of the American market when it comes to online maps, according to The Washington Post. It currently has a mobile app for Android and iOS users, forth with a mobile-friendly website that you can pull upward on any internet-connected device. Some of the site's features include real-time traffic information, local gas prices and voice-guided navigation. MapQuest also takes you directly to the front end door of your destination rather than to the street address.
Who Uses MapQuest Now?
The Washington Post reports that MapQuest considered changing its proper name in 2015, simply the company decided not to considering it still had millions of loyal followers, well-nigh of whom are based in North America. Some other reason the visitor wasn't willing to make likewise many changes just yet was that their users actively seek MapQuest apps. Virtually Android and iOS smartphones come up with other companies' mapping systems, such equally Google Maps or Apple Maps, already installed. To utilise MapQuest, smartphone owners must download the app or visit the website.
Does MapQuest Have a Future?
In Oct 2019, Verizon, which purchased AOL and MapQuest in 2016, sold MapQuest to advertisement technology company System1. The amount of the sale was non disclosed. While not much is known nearly the company's future, Verizon released a statement about the purchase, maxim, "System1 plans to position, foster and abound the MapQuest brand as a more private alternative to other consumer mapping applications."
Source: https://www.questionsanswered.net/lifestyle/whatever-happened-to-mapquest?utm_content=params%3Ao%3D740012%26ad%3DdirN%26qo%3DserpIndex