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Thursday, September 30, 2010

MapQuest Launches Interactive Atlas

MapQuest, in its drive to get on people’s radars again, is launching an interactive atlas that combines MapQuest maps with an array of geographic, cultural and climate data.
MapQuest Atlas sports a very simple interface. Users can drill down into data on every country in the world. Much of the information in the atlas comes from the CIA’s World Factbook rather than from sources such as Wikipedia. By clicking on a country on the map, you will be able to learn its capital, temperature and current time.
A second click takes you deeper, though, into a nation’s geography, culture, government, economy and military. Most of these facts are basic information that’s easily discoverable through the World Factbook’s web app or Wikipedia, but it’s nice to have another easy-to-use web tool that brings it all together. In addition to information on the different nations of the world, MapQuest Atlas also displays information on time zones, world climate, continents and oceans. There’s also a “Compare Countries” feature, which places the geographic, political and social data of any two nations side-by-side.
MapQuest’s Atlas is designed for the average Internet user, which means it’s intended to be inherently simple. It’s nothing groundbreaking like Google Earth, but we can see a lot of kids with insatiable thirst for knowledge browsing this thing all day. MapQuest, a subsidiary of AOL, recently launched a complete redesign with new features and an overhauled interface.
What do you think of MapQuest Atlas? Is it something you might use in the future?

29 comments:

  1. it kind of reminds me of Google Earth, imagine if they combined or something

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  2. I'm fine with google already, AOL is a no go!

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  3. AOL made this? That's all I need to know xD

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  4. il prefer google earth
    also interesting stuff u have here i gues il keep coming every day to see whats new click

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  5. this is niceeee. but im not amused really

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  6. hey dude, loving the content of your blog.

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  7. Interesting, I might have to check Atlas out.

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  8. This is already pretty addictive. Prepare for: "I wish they had this when I was a kid!" statement.

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  9. Yea i stopped reading after AOL. lol.

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  10. Sounds interesting, but nothing to really attract me that much.

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  11. It looks interesting, but after google earth is it really necessary?

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  12. I like mapquest, but when I want to take a scenic route on my bike, it's such a pain to use.

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  13. Been using it for quite a while now and im loving it

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  14. i used mapquest but now i use google earth.

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  15. yeah google earth is much easier i think, but i could be biased I use google chrome and refuse to use anything but google for search engine...

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  16. I'm pretty comfortable with Google Earth...

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  17. Great post!

    looking forward to reading the next one

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  18. I was wondering what happened to mapquest.

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  19. I'll stick with Google Earth, thank you very much. More reliable then other options, to me at least.

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  20. The old one is very nice, simple and informative. It's not Wikipedia and it's not GoogleEarth and it's not supposed to be. The new thing.. I don't know, really. I think it will have some trouble competing with GoogleEarth.

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  21. All I want is for someone to make a map service like this that doesn't give shitty directions.

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