Yahoo! Local & Maps Gets A Much-Needed Update

Writing by Nick Stamoulis Tweet

Yahoo! Maps has updated its functionality. According to the Yahoo! Maps Blog, some of the new features include:

• New Neighborhood Data at lower zoom levels with:
• 300 cities with new neighborhood data added throughout North America, from Palo Alto, to Chicago, to Toronto, etc.
• 12,000 new neighborhoods added, from “Lower East Side” (New York, Milwaukee, Bridgeport) to “Lower Collegetown” (Ithaca)
• Expanded Worldwide Coverage with much improved coverage, especially throughout Eastern Europe
• New POI information – highlighting Schools, Rest areas, Ski Resorts, etc.
• Additional shaded relief levels worldwide
• City label density increased for better usability
• Style improvements such as Hybrid Road and Label colors adjusted for better legibility
• Lighter map tiles – with an average of 30-60% reduction in size

These are definite improvements. I really like the highlighted POI information. That means if you are looking for a specific type of facility in a local area then you’ll be able to find it more easily. I’ve always thought that Yahoo! did a good job with its local maps feature. It’s an area that they’ve managed to compete in and where Google does not have a huge advantage. I think there is a lot of potential for Yahoo! to be a major player in the local search market as they already are. More improvements can only make their local features more desirable.