A week after its recent makeover, AOL’s MapQuest has launched a new local initiative, with customizable widgets based on location.
But somehow the map, an integral part of the site, takes on a secondary role with gas prices, videos, Flickr photos, news stories, events and restaurant reviews (including various AOL properties like City Guide) dominating the page.
It’s all useful information, but none of it is integrated directly into the map as they are on the homepage. You have to click to go to a new page to view the marker.
MapQuest also formally requests original content via blog, with the incentive of having local websites benefit from its “47M+ unique users every month.”
This is all part of their experimental beta project that will take place over the next few months to try to improve the usability and design, but perhaps the simplicity is what has pushed it to the top. MapQuest is still the leader in online mapping as far as web traffic with 47.4 million unique users in July, but Google is a close second with 39.5 million.
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