The map revolution
By: Drivers.com staff
Date: 2005-08-23
"It took integrated GPS receivers, digital cameras, sophisticated geocoding software and a lot of driving," said Amazon.com Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos. "But 20 million curb-side photographs later, A9.com Yellow Pages lets you see where you are going before you get there."
Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com, was talking about a very exciting new development in online mapping--photos of both sides of streets or highways that allow you to scan along for an image of the address you're looking for. In other words, not only can you pull up a map of Los Angeles on your computer, you can take a virtual stroll down Sunset Blvd and check out what's on either side.
If the tackiness of Sunset dissipates some of your romantic images of Los Angeles, drag the little magnifying glass on your map over to Rodeo Drive or Wiltshire Blvd and see some of the upmarket (rich and famous) stuff.
A9.com, Inc., a separately branded and operated subsidiary of Amazon.com, Inc., opened its Palo Alto, California office in October 2003 to research and build innovative search technologies. The new mapping service became available on August 16, 2005 at maps.A9.com.
A9 first began to post street-level photos of specific addresses earlier this year as part of its Yellow Pages listings. Now it's extending that service by posting photos of entire city blocks. The site is currently displaying block-view photos from 22 American cities.
Some interesting features:
You can create driving directions, and then click on points along the way (intersections, street corners, etc.) to see how they look in the real world
Click on a point in the map to get the corresponding address
Call a business with a single click of a button. The technology phones both the user and the business at the same time. Users simply pick up their phone when it rings and will be connected with the business.
Customer reviews and personalized recommendations, similar to those available for current products and services at Amazon.com, are expected to become part of the service.
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