RED HERRING | Driving With MapQuest

Never get lost again. The technology synonymous with online mapping is now available via cell phone.
April 3, 2006

MapQuest, one of the best-known names in Internet mapping, said Monday it is marketing two products designed to get cell phone users to their destinations.



The wholly owned subsidiary of America Online introduced MapQuest Navigator, a voice-enabled, global positioning system-based mapping service for cell phones, along with easier cell phone access to its mapping web site.



MapQuest, a commercial name that has become a synonym for obtaining online directions, partnered with Telmap, a mobile mapping and navigational solutions provider, to market MapQuest Navigator, a cell phone navigational application.



Using color maps formatted for the limited screen space available on cell phones, MapQuest Navigator provides detailed driving directions, along with graphics, text, and voice capabilities to keep cell phone users from getting lost.



The system also comes equipped with a database of millions of potential destinations, such as hotels, restaurants, theaters, and similar locations.



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Users can not only drive to their listed destinations points, they can also direct-dial the hotel, restaurant, etc., directly from the application. They can also make reservations and email or text-message the locations to friends or fellow travelers.



Shares of Time Warner, the parent company of MapQuest and AOL, rose a nickel to $16.84 in recent trading.



Cell Phone Access

MapQuest also announced the easier availability of its online site via cell phone. The cell phone functionality, which is available now, is designed for most web-enabled cell phones.



The technology, based on the web-to-mobile adaptation capabilities afforded by InforGin Ltd., allows users to access MapQuest.com by simply going to the web site.



“MapQuest Navigator and web-enabled services provide consumers with some of the most powerful and convenient solutions for finding places while they are mobile,” said Jim Greiner, vice president and general manager of MapQuest.



Location-based services (LBS) for cell phones are becoming an attractive battleground for vendors and service providers from divergent areas of the industry.



Increasingly mobile device users have become a target for location-based services such as driving directions.



Sprint, Google Target Mobile Users

Cell phone service providers such as Sprint Nextel and Verizon Wireless either have products in the market or are developing products for the LBS space.



On Thursday, search king Google enhanced its advertising profile among regional businesses with a new feature that allows local businesses to purchase advertising space in pop-up balloons on Google maps.



Google has made a number of bold moves in the past to capture local advertising with its specialty search sites Google Local, Google Base, and Froogle.



The new feature allows local advertisers such as the neighborhood delicatessen, hardware, or furniture store to insert advertising information, such as the business logo, along with the business address and other information in balloons that seem to hover over their locations on the map.



Google began testing the feature two weeks ago with a few advertisers, including the premier retail bookseller, Barnes & Noble. With the new feature, which went live on Thursday, Google will attempt to pull in the local business market.



Most local businesses tend to use mailed circulars, telephone directories, local radio, billboards, local newspapers, and increasingly late night cable TV to attract customers.



But with the rapid emergence of web search as a consumer conduit to general and shopping information, companies such as Google are attempting to build a local advertising profile.