The first word that comes to mind is “sexy”. So long, Mapquest! I have a new love!
That said, the new Google Groups sucks. Yes, yes, great archive, etc., but when it comes to actually reading a group, it’s even more unwieldy than it was before.
:eek:
Wow. I’m absolutely amazed. Once again, Google has wowed me with its utter simplicity and usability. So long, Mapquest! It was nice knowin’ ya! (Seriously.)
Just for kicks, I typed in directions from my apartment in Seattle to my parents’ house in Portland. Then I set it to a zoom level of 5 so I could see every block in between and I dragged the window all the way from start to finish. 
I’m easily amused.
I’m an idiot. Why does every section (such as Find a business) have two text boxes to enter information?
You don’t have to use both text boxes. Just fill in a text field (I don’t think it matters which of the six you use) and click on the Search button beside it. They have two text boxes to display two examples per heading. For example, under “Find a business”, you can see that you can search for a type of business near a place, and you can even just do a subject lookup for pizza places.
At least that’s how I understand it.
I second that it doesn’t work with Safari. Grrrr.
The best map interface I ever found is no longer available. At least, I can’t find it. randmcnally.com had a globe map with a similar click-and-drag feature. It didn’t have the street detail that google’s does, but it did have the entire world. A Chinese intern here at work pointed me to her home town, it was easy to get there and quite cool. There were options for finding distance between two points, click and drag, and another that I can’t quite remember…it was awesome and now it’s gone.
Google has done a fabulous job, though, of making it easy and clear to understand. I use Yahoo Maps for some stuff, and Mapquest for some other stuff (mapquest has international maps, I can’t wait for that!), but now I think I’ll stick with Google.
If you haven’t tried map24, give it a try. It can be customized for things like preferred speed and road type and you can choose to avoid toll roads. My favorite feature is the “Find along the route” menu.