Yahoo argues that its juiced-up mapping service, unveiled last week, now provides the most detailed maps on the Web. So what? you might ask. As Kelsey Group analyst Neil Polachek says, "It's much more
important that [portals] nail the user experience." Then they can focus on comprehensiveness, one-upmanship and making money. The three biggest services, AOL, Yahoo, and Google, are still far from
comprehensive in the information they provide, but improving. None of these companies are really making any money on providing info, either, but right now, the focus is more on keeping users at their
respective portals (yes, Google is a portal). They're still dabbling in ways to monetize these services. Google just started selling ad space on top of its maps to businesses last month. Businesses
like restaurants, hotels, and banks can now pay to have their logos displayed next to their locations on both Google and Yahoo Maps. On Yahoo, users can select various chains to be displayed on a map.
The portals are also in talks with automotive, travel, employment and real estate advertisers, to pay for favorable placement on their maps. Currently, Time Warner's AOL is top dog in the map
marketplace, with MapQuest, the 10-year-old map service, drawing 46.4 million visitors in March, according to comScore--more than double Google and Yahoo combined. Yahoo was second in March with 20
million uniques, followed by Google, with 19.1 million.
Read the whole story at Forbes.com »
