The best free online map service (maps.google.co.uk)

Member Name: cognition

Product:	maps.google.co.uk
Date:	21/11/08 (187 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Intuitive, Reliable, Fast

Disadvantages: Sattellite images are not avaiable in equal detail in all areas worldwide yet

There are a multitude of online map services available for free. Sometimes I've been using streetmap.co.uk, and sometimes I've been looking things up in my A-Z map book. But these days I find myself mostly going to Google Maps when I need directions.

So what are the competitive advantages that Google Maps offers over the alternative free map sites? Well, you can easily change between three modes, the traditional map view that shows a drawn map, a satellite view, which shows actual satellite pictures of the area and a view of the terrain. To be honest I mostly stick to the traditional map view. My favorite feature is, I can search for any destination based on whatever data I have, so I can for instance input the name of a train station, and Google Maps will give me some suggested search results. I click on the one that corresponds to my wishes, and boom: it's there on the map. Then I can click on the train station and choose "find way from here to", and input another address. Google Maps will then find a suggested route of getting from point A to point B, using car or by walking. This will be illustrated by a path on the actual map, and there will also be a written description including road names, and a time estimation of how long you will have to walk down each specific part of the route. All this can, of course, be printed. and you can send a route by e-mail to a friend using a simple mail form.

I know that all of this functionality is not that unique. I have seen some similar functionality in other services. I think the main point is that Google is known for being user friendly, intuitive and powerful, and these are words that are reflected in Google Maps. I use Google Maps because it's the fastest way for me to find the information I seek, and it's also the service I've tried that gives me the most reliable and detailed results!

Summary: Fast, reliable map service!