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Google maps vs. Yahoo! maps

sergeychernyshev.com — Side by side comparison tool by Sergey Chernyshev.

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  • gwjc, on 10/12/2007, -9/+149"Google Maps is the best/True dat, Double True"
    • al28p, on 10/12/2007, -34/+10ive always liked google but when you zoom in its too cluttered with names.

      http://www.sergeychernyshev.com/maps.html#45.239118616829366,-75.82763671875,8,2
    • grapeape25, on 10/12/2007, -6/+29Google maps also seems more of the world covered... I put it on satelite mode and I went to my house and Google had it on every level, where as Yahoo! I had to zoom out like 6 times.
    • jonathantneal, on 10/12/2007, -27/+3Yo Gwjc what's crackin?
    • bugninja, on 10/12/2007, -4/+15In Spokane, WA, the Google Satellite view is MUCH better, but in Yahoo, the street info seems far more accurate (with 1-way road information, and new roads, etc) YET Google shows schools and Yahoo doesn't. Wow, what huge differences!!
    • steveng, on 10/12/2007, -6/+14I live in Yakima, Wa. and Yahoo! Maps has much better images than google. Type in: 98902 Yakima Wa
    • daboy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11I live a bit north of Atlanta, GA, and the Yahoo maps are newer for my area. A new school they just built, right by my house is in the Yahoo one.

      On google, it's still a mass of woods.
    • Kilroy2004, on 10/12/2007, -5/+41Marked as inaccurate!!!

      Here is why:

      In Google Maps API, the road information is taken from TeleAtlas (bottom right corner of map), whereas, on the actual Google Maps website, it is entirely NAVTEQ data. This can make a big difference, as I know several places in my town that the TeleAtlas data is horribly out of date.

      This is not a comparison of Google Maps vs Yahoo Maps... it is a comparison of the APIs.
    • spinomatic, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9I love google maps - but if they would only show exit numbers off of the interstates....
    • kmarius, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I did a random zoom and it seems that Yahoo has a more detailed street map. Just look at this coordinate. Not only does Yahoo show more information, they also show a road not found at Google

      http://www.sergeychernyshev.com/maps.html#34.016384176062076,-94.3901538848877,3,0
  • ccheath, on 10/12/2007, -3/+20i'd like a 3-way comparison with the local.live.com windows maps as well
    • armadilloguy, on 10/12/2007, -7/+13Try this for a 3 way comparison:
      http://maps.idelix.com
    • Daniel591992, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8techcrunch had one and chose yahoo maps :-/
    • webonics, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7I personally prefer Yahoo! Maps API. I find its a much better rapid development environment for me. I have also developed several mapping applications with the Google Maps API. However, I have run into problems with Google on IE7 combatability and areas of a map that do not display on slower user connections. I also like that Yahoo! Maps is Flex-based and can be integrated in JS, Flash and/or Flex. I find the Yahoo! Maps to be more visually appealing aesthetically too.
    • SourWorm, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I've been using local.live.com a lot more lately because of the ability to add pushpins and store collections of them. I've used the collections to plan a few trips. I would start marking places I might want to go to and then when I had a plan I would just directions from one pushpin to the other.
    • daemmon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1How about a 4 way? Google, yahoo, virtual earth and terraserver. Fade-able, sortable layers:

      http://ocarto.com
  • chicken101, on 10/12/2007, -5/+32Google's server's are faster too.
    • jwyles, on 10/12/2007, -40/+3And you know this because... you've worked at Google and Yahoo!?
    • TiMMY8765, on 10/12/2007, -3/+20because the google map takes less time to load
    • Smwbigboss, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4Because google's map shows up faster than yahoo's.
    • theOster, on 10/12/2007, -11/+4yeah, i'm kinda sorry that yahoo owns flickr...
    • Qoogirl, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5But isn't Yahoo! Maps (the one featured here) beta? Which means it's still in progress.
    • Gullop, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6The yahoo maps show up faster than the google ones for me :/

      I live in UK so maybe google doesn't have so many severs here in UK.
    • jwyles, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5I sure hope that you do realize that what you are calling server speed is pure speculation and could be bandwidth, AJAX / design, your computers speed with the JS application, or any number of other issues.
  • Nougat, on 10/12/2007, -26/+2Guess what? Google, MapQuest, Yahoo - they all use the same data. So it's whichever inteface you prefer.
  • bluedino, on 10/12/2007, -8/+6yahoo wins for my town http://www.sergeychernyshev.com/maps.html#32.53805,-84.86687,4,2
  • jwyles, on 10/12/2007, -7/+5I have to give this one to Yahoo! Maps because I was able to find directions based on location name (e.g. "Yosemite National Park" or "Transamerica building") rather than street addresses. On a few occassions Google Maps has just spit back a message saying it did not know where I was talking about whereas Yahoo! maps knew what was up.
    • topher7756, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1For me, they could both find Yosemite National Park, and neither could find the Transamerica building.
    • Zreitan, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I've found the google gets confused about directions a lot, it can find one address and then another..but try and find directions between the two and it forgets its self..
  • Computer_Kid, on 10/12/2007, -4/+3Google maps all the way!
  • daven1986, on 10/12/2007, -5/+5yahoo maps look very poor in comparison to googles. they are also slow.
  • Judahgabriel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I've been a big Google Maps fan for quite some time, so I'm biased in saying I think GMaps is better than Yahoo Maps.

    Recently I've tried out Microsoft's Virtual Earth and their corresponding maps...cool stuff! One thing I really like is the Birds' Eye View, something Google Maps doesn't have yet. Very cool feature. Good to see competition, really improves all the products around.
  • Surreptitious, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Google is definently more clearer for where I live.
  • wingnut21, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4Google maps is my primary mapping site, but http://local.live.com has some excellent aerial (not satellite) photography from different angles.
  • thespace, on 10/12/2007, -7/+1As a developer, I prefer Yahoo Maps and Google PPPLLLEEEASE make a flash API !!!!
  • Kickboy, on 10/12/2007, -10/+1http://www.sergeychernyshev.com/maps.html#35.181735866660034,-107.85364151000977,5,1

    Anyone else think that looks like a penis?
  • gregharmon, on 10/12/2007, -11/+2From a guy named Sergey. You know he's obviously and blatantly biased because he shares the same first name as one of Google's founders.

    He's an asshole. Maybe even a freedom hater.
    • H080J03, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1hmm greg, i once knew a guy named greg, he was a mail man, he also hated ice cream. oh an he was an asshole.
  • Cymrubeats, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Google maps beats yahoo maps hands down. I can zoom into my house with GM, but with YM i can barealy zoom into anything but full country view (this is sat i'm talking about, but map mode is just as bad.

    [sarcasm]It did get it right that my country is scotland though, so that was nice of yahoo, google was showing off and all that crap by displaying street names, and getting them right, what assholes.[sarcasm]
  • frascellyboy273, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7google wins hands down for sattelite coverage and speed, yahoo prevails with searches without adresses
    • jwyles, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I said the exact same thing you just did earlier and was modded down so +mod for you so at least the message gets out there!
  • hedgiedarren, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4Google Maps may have better close-ups for North America, but where's the rest of the world? I live in Senegal, West Africa, and they didn't have any roads whatsoever. However, I zoomed up 6 more notches with Yahoo, which included main roads country-wide. I always choose Google over anything Yahoo, but was disappointed to see Google's lack of Senegal in their maps.
    • dacheetah, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I got the opposite...
      Google Maps have good data for both streets and satellite images for where I live (sydney), yet Yahoo thinks that the area suddenly turns white once you reach a certain level of zoom (which is zoomed out far enough to have many suburban suburbs in it) and also seems to think it's uninhabited, only a rail line and one road, when infact, there are streets everywhere.

      http://www.sergeychernyshev.com/maps.html#-33.737687984759276,151.06630325317383,5,0

      edit: the satellite maps did start to show up, they are just HORRIBLY slow...
  • snugja, on 10/12/2007, -6/+6Anything google makes is amazing.
    • dysonlu, on 10/12/2007, -6/+3Yeah, like their Instant Messaging service for instance. [sarcasm]
    • lakawak, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Wow. At least you don't try to hide the fact that you are a sheep.
  • fatdog789, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4If only Google Maps could generate accurate directions, it might be worth something. It doesn't help that the traffic flow arrows on their maps are often pointing the wrong way, that numerous streets are mislabled, or that they have inaccurate coordinate data for 90% of SoCal AND Cleveland (Ohio). I would have figured that the SoCal bit was an anomaly, but their Cleveland data is even worse.

    Really, the only thing that GMaps has going for it is that it doesn't use flash, so it's easier for programmers to use in their own apps.
    • spuddy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Yahoo maps has both Flash and AJAX APIs.
  • tarzan99, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Does yahoo maps even implement the satellite view? It seemed to be the quickest way to blank the window
    • dacheetah, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2It does, but it has a fresh coffee detector built into it. You have to select sat or hybrid mode, and then make a fresh cup of coffee, and bring it back to the computer. (And I'm talking real coffee, not instant.)
  • drlha, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3There is something wrong here.

    I just did the comparision for my own town, and in the Google window a major road (built in the last few years) is missing from Google, but not from Yahoo. I just went to the Google Maps site and the road is there, so something is wrong with the Google Maps data on this page, it is either out of date or just plain wrong. Just FYI.
    • p5ychop3nguin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Google maps uses diffrent data for it's API and its website, the maps at maps.google.com are newer and more accurate.
  • harlowsmonkeys, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2Something's odd here. The map he shows for Google maps does NOT match the maps I get when I go to maps.google.com. In particular, a street near my apartment is missing on the maps I get at maps.google.com, and on the Yahoo maps, but shows up in the Google maps he shows.

    At the bottom of my Google maps, it says "Map data (C) 2006 NAVTEQ(tm)", but on the bottom of his Google maps, it says "Map data (C) 2006 TeleAtlas".

    (And the Yahoo maps credit both NAVTEQ and TeleAtlas).

  • Dadgumit, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6For my two cents

    Yahoo actually seems to have a better means of finding "things" in an area on the map (looking for types of restaurants on the beta maps interface for instance). They also seem, just from my personal experience, to have more detailed maps, and better street data.

    What absolutely KILLS Y!'s map is the painfully slow load time.

    Yahoo's advantages just aren't worth it, unless they can get their load times down.


    On a side note, I have been seeing more and more valid, worthy comments "thumbs downed". I can only assume that this is due to some "fanboyism" for google (in the case of this digg). To that I would say that voting with emotion is ALWAYS ALWAYS bad. You are bringing down the average, and hurting the community. Use your critical thinking skills, or develop them if you are lacking, and consider what you digg up or digg down.
    • dysonlu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I agree about the comments ratings. That's why I pay attention to the negatively rated comments too; sometimes, even more attention than the positive ones if I feel that the digg crowd's general opinion is unduly one-sided.
    • jwyles, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I was thumbed down for saying what you just did so to you I give a thumbs way up! Google fanboys/gals ignore quality for a brand-name and elitism. Sure the pages may load a bit slower on Yahoo! maps, but for accuracy and ability to find off-and-away places it sure beats the hell out of Google Maps. This coming from a guy who is on free GoogleWIFI in Mountain View and who uses GMail for his domain email. Give me at least a little credit, I am being as objective as possible when I say Yahoo! maps takes the cake on this one.
  • corduroy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Each have their own strengths and weaknesses.

    I don't understand why Aurora is so prominently displayed (Denver is absent) in Google's map and somehow dissapears when it's zoomed in. However, Google displays more information on parks and such and the satellite imagery is superior.

    However, one very important aspect of a map service is how well they print. Google's online map service is terrific (I prefer local.live.com now) but their printing is terrible. I tried to print out directions and I couldn't get it to print my selected part of the map I wanted to print (I didn't need the some 200 miles on the same highway printed) and the most damning mistake was that it printed a huge map in a tiny resolution. It was like looking at a nintendo 8-bit map blown up to take the entire page. For me, it doesn't matter just how good the online component is, I'm not going to bring out my notebook while driving to get directions when alternatives allow me to print to a piece of paper. If I was to use a computer in my car to get directions, I'd use an in-car navigation system.
  • stephantual, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Yahoo didn't have data for Paris, France, and Google could find London, UK (although to be fair their main site can).
  • Qoogirl, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3For where I live, both work fine (I use both sometimes, but find differences in the directions' estimated time and sometimes the routes are different).

    I have to say, I personally prefer Yahoo! Maps Beta. Why? First of all, there is a dropdown menu of all the places I've chosen to save. While Google Maps tries to be friendly in saving ANYTHING I've ever looked for while signed in, that means I have to remember the first number of an address or something similar to get that dropdown menu. I'd much rather a dropdown list. Unintuitively, Yahoo! Maps Beta seems to have a limit on how many destinations I can save in its memory...or is that just my account?

    I RARELY use the satellite feature on either--it's not close enough to see anything that could help as a real life landmark when driving. Windows Live Map was just SO CONFUSING. I tried to figure out how to 1) rename places and 2) switch to aerial view and I was so lost. It wasn't similar to anything I've used and it made it unnecessarily difficult. I also doubt it works on Macs, so I can't recommend it (or does it now?).
  • ahatter, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3yahoo maps > google maps
  • theantidote, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I think Yahoo is cheating with their satellite photos. They boosted the green a bit, or at least for my area. Google's is a lot clearer and easier to see, Yahoo's makes it look like 1000 new trees popped up in the 1-2 year difference between the photos. It makes it look like a better picture until you really look at it.

    EDIT: Nevermind, I'm retarded. Google's was taken during the fall and Yahoo's during the Spring/Summer.
  • darkecho, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2I zoomed in around where my house is.
    a. Google loaded it MUCH faster than yahoo
    b. There are some random curves in roads on Yahoo's map, that do not exist.

    They both work good, however the winner for me goes to google, as it loads quite a bit faster.
  • kghoshal, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1i guess that at a lower zoom level(say 3 ) Yahoo shows the names of the streets whereas Google shows that.On the contrary Google shows the names of the highways at this zoom level which is not shown by Yahoo. I guess it makes more sense to show the highway names at this zoom level and not showing the street names and making a clutter.

    ~kaustav ghoshal
  • davidszcz, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I think this automatically shows that Google Maps is better. It's doing the following. The API is just that much better than Yahoo!.
  • MadMan2k, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1My experience has apparently been just about opposite from most people's - the few times I've used Google maps for driving directions, they've been inaccurate, and since I'm on dial-up, most of the time Google maps just never finishes loading the page. Plus, a few times when I've searched for a business address on Google, it couldn't find it at all, but with the same criteria it worked on Yahoo.
  • Mojave, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The satellite imagery for Yahoo has changed since last night. On flickr, I was geotagging some of my photos and the sat imagery was MUCH better (resolution) in some places than it has ever been on Google. But today, that is all gone. Strange.
    • jimmaine, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0The flickr high resolution maps disappeared today. For a while they were much better than anything on google in my area in Maine. This afternoon as I was tagging some of my photos and did a reload, rather than seeing the map I got the white screen saying I had to zoom out.
  • rick2k, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Im from the uk and yahoo maps is just terrible for uk coverage.

    I have to say google is spot on with there maps and tools to be honest.
  • clickr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Till now a google maps fan, now its yahoo all the way..for the better API.
    Recently I got totally delayed coz the stupid MS STreets & Maps 2006 had horribly out-of-date info. Yahoo shows the latest highways, MARKS the highways more often, whereas the google api with telatlas is *****, but google maps is recent (why on earth would the have this difference...thumbs down to them for that)...and google maps never marks the highways based on your view. When you zoom in real close, it loses lot of info.
  • WhiplashVIII, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0Google > Yahoo!
  • rsilva, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Anybody knows why my Firefox doesn't show the maps?
    Using FF 1.5.0.6 in XP Pro here.
    • CeeJayDK, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I'm using Firefox 1.5.0.6 on XP Pro too and it works perfectly for me .. it must be something else
  • danarel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1i find google maps, as far as directions go, to be very inaccurate most of the time
  • arpitmathur, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I like the fact that yahoo has taken the effort to add map movements into the browser history. As you move to a new place, you can click on the back button to move back.
    go yahoo !
  • gd007, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1this is useful!
  • Navid, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I have a Treo 700p and google maps acts up all the time. Yahoo maps is straight-forward and get the job done. So Yahoo Maps is the better choice for me.
  • LukeBK, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Could this be a old copy of yahoo I went to maps.yahoo.com and it could show me my house and on this website it couldn’t.
  • lakawak, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Oh god..not this debate again. It is so damn pointless! NEITHER is inherently better. It depends on where you live. Google does not do well in smaller cities and towns. They do zoom in better in many largers cities though, and have newer maps generally.

    So enough already. Stop acting like YOUR experience is the be all, end all final word on what is better.

    Yahoo may be slower now, but quite frankly, not much, considering Yahoo's is still EXTREMELY new. And Google's got slower when they finally added the scroll wheel zoom. It is now slower on my computer than Google Earth. I used to use Google Maps for quick checks since it was faster, but now it is not.

    Like with pretty much EVERY Google product other than search engine, it won't be long before they are caught up to and surpassed. (ACtually, in many areas, Google Maps was surpassed already.)
  • crackberry, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0I like google maps because you it is easier to query. For example I can just type "from [myhouse] to [wherever]" and I get directions and a map.
  • Runesabre, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I can see my house on both Google and Yahoo.

    Google has a closer, higher resolution image of my house but it's 5 years out of date.

    Yahoo is not as close or high resolution but the image is from within the last year.

    If Google were up to date with their satellite images, Google would definitely be better.

    As it stands, neither are that great for different reasons.
  • Anomaly427, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Hmmm, zoomed up to my local train station in my area (Tokyo) and let's see...

    Google: All there, and in Japanese
    Yahoo: One huge grey blob. Doesn't even show the station.

    I know Yahoo maps in *Japan* work fine, so why does this one fail?
    • CeeJayDK, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Yahoo has the same problem with all of Europe and I haven't checked other parts of the world except the US where it had okay coverage.

      Since I'm european Yahoo maps is completely worthless to me.
      As for Google Maps .. it's okay for looking up streets in other countries but for my own country I prefer more local services that offer more acurate data and much better image detail (for satellite images)
  • Mfnmosha, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Google shows alleys by my house where yahoo does not, i think thats more detailed.
  • treediddy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I love the side-by-side comparison. If I'm using my home address as a test, it's somewhat of a toss-up. Construction in my neighborhood began about 2-1/2 to 3 years ago and ended about 6 months ago. With a search on my home address, Yahoo maps takes me right there and displays every road in my neighborhood, although not all of them are labeled; Google maps shows none of the streets in my neighborhood and doesn't recognize my street address. On the other hand, Google's satellite imagery lets me go to full zoom, although the images appear to be about 3-4 years old; Yahoo's imagery appears to be of about the same age, but won't let me zoom any closer than about 2/3 of maximum, not nearly enough to see any on-the-ground detail.
  • mrcharliebrown, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Microsoft's http://local.live.com has higher resolution satellite images than both google and yahoo. Compare Ann Arbor, Michigan, for example.
  • fatas, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Yahoo Maps is basically the loud ugly American i.e. it has never travelled outside of USA.
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