Maps: Yahoo vs Google

Yahoo this week updated the satellite imagery used in its beta Maps offering to include 1m resolution satellite photos for the entire US. Pretty cool. Since I never given Yahoo Maps a try, I figured I test it out against Google Maps.

Doing a search for Network World’s address (118 Turnpike Road, Southborough, MA 01772) brings up our location on Google Maps without a problem (though if you look at hybrid image, the pointer is a few yards too far to the East.) Yahoo has no record of our address, though it does seem to zoom right down to our general area. Score one for Google. But switching to satellite view, Yahoo absolutely obliterates Google. The image is much more up-to-date and super crisp. It must have been taken on a weekday, because there are a lot of cars in the parking lot. Technically, you can zoom a little closer with Google, but the resolution is much clearer with Yahoo. And the Google image is missing a few of the newer buildings in our neighborhood. One note: Google has much higher resolution images of the larger cities like Boston. Try zooming in on Logan Airport in Google Maps as opposed to Yahoo Maps beta. Yahoo also has one other leg up on Google: The maps include Live Traffic information from the local highway department available in both map and satellite view. Very cool.