It’s been a while since I wrote about online mapping tools, so I thought I’d take a look at the major offerings and see how things have changed since I last looked. To test them out, I used three addresses - mine, my mom’s (hi Mom!), and my brother’s. I live in a rural area outside McPherson, KS. My mom lives in McPherson in a newer area. My brother lives in suburban St. Louis, MO.
A word about McPherson. It’s a small town (population ~14,000), but it is sort of unique in that it is a Micropolitan Statistical Area. So it’s not exactly Nowheresville. It should, I believe, have pretty good data available.
Google Maps
Everybody raves about Google Maps - they are now the big dog in online maps (at least that’s what I hear).
Results of address queries:
- Mine - placed the pin only four miles away from the actual address. It has been consistant in doing this for about a year (it was originally off over 30 miles)
- Mom’s - correctly placed the pin
- Little Bro’s - right on the money
Imagery:
- McPherson (Digital Globe) - Yikes!. I know that better data are available. Data are at least 5 years old.
- St. Louis (Digital Globe) - Looks pretty good. I believe that the images are only a couple years old.
Yahoo! Maps - Beta
I like the new Yahoo! Maps Beta. Easy to use, and it actually finds my house. This is the one I use most often.
Results of address queries:
- Mine - correctly placed map marker
- Mom’s - ditto
- Little Bro’s - yeppers, found it again
Imagery:
- McPherson (i-cubed) - Still older sat images, but they were taken within the last 3 years.
- St. Louis (Aerials Express) - Looks good, but couldn’t zoom in very far.
Live Local
Good looking application. I think that the Yahoo! and Google offerings are easier to use though.
Results of address queries:
- Mine - found it (it was off about 200 feet).
- Mom’s - found it.
- Little Bro’s - and found it.
Imagery:
- McPherson (USGS) - Sat images, at least 7 years old. My mom’s house isn’t shown on the images, nor is a building we built 7 years ago on our property.
- St. Louis (USGS) - Looks good.
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