Mapquest driving directions

Sports car enthusiasts have grown to love Mapquest driving directions, but what is the technology behind this new marvel? It's quite simple really. Mapquest driving directions is a map publishing service that is owned by America Online (AOL). Over 150,000,000 users each month use Mapquest driving directions but only a few understand the history of Mapquest, how it works, and how to properly use it. There are more uses than driving directions created by the Mapquest software. Some are really fun and others are functional. This article effectively covers all aspects behind the new phenomena "Mapquest driving directions".

Ready to find driving directions? Click here to visit Mapquest.com!

First, let's take a moment to try out the Mapquest Driving Directions system widget hosted by Widgetbox. Feel free to enter any address you'd like. Try using your home as a starting point, and a relatives house as a destination for example. The following widget is a third party property hosted on Widgetbox and may not be as accurate as the real Mapquest direction locator which can be found by clicking here.

Sports car enthusiasts can enjoy peace of mind while endeavoring their performance pleasures by using Mapquest driving directions. Being able to see the road pattern ahead is a key ingredient to safe driving. If your sports car breaks down, you can use the Mapquest driving directions to lead you to help, repair, lodging, food, and more. All motorists get stranded at one point or another, it really helps to have a navigational aid.

If you are lost in uncivilized areas, navigational software and hand held units can all lead you to safety. Using the satellite imagery, it can help you plan you hike route in case of emergency. Sometimes the road isn't short enough, finding old county roads and trails can cut down on commute time as well. First, let's learn how GPS works.

History of Mapquest driving directions

Mapquest started out in 1957 as "Cartographic Services" located in Chicago, IL. Cartographic services was part of R.R. Donnelly & Sons which later moved to Lancaster, PA in 1969. It finally became independent in 1994 and was named GeoSytems Global Corporation. Most of the maps used today were made back in the 1980's for independent customers and were converted into a web service in 1996. The website in it's early years displayed satellite imagery but removed it. Later in 2006 it started to display the satalite feeds once more. As most of us know, Mapquest became the provider of the OnStar GPS map service in 2007. This kicked off a series of hit TV features such as SNL and CSI. *wikipedia

How does Mapquest directions for driving work?

In short summary, the mapping data is stored on a server in files. When you type in the various directional driving data such as address, city, etc this creates terms for it to search for. The search is then inquired to the server. Server finds the information, and displays it on your screen. The process is very simple and can be done very fast. It allows for minimal data transfer using gif images and xml.

This is a very basic explanation and more information can be found here. Most people use this service to reference business and private listings. However, sports car enthusiasts, motorists, street racing performance folks, and everyone in between can use this service for other "fun" things.

Fun things to do with Mapquest, Google Earth, and others.

There are several fun things you can do with Mapquest driving directions. Exploration, adventure, reference and more await the internet surfer and sports car enthusiast alike. For drives, meets, and more the street crowd can enjoy a great tool for plotting courses, rendezvous, and more. Checking out the parking lot size is a good tool to use with the measuring tools found in modern map software. Read the following to learn more about how navigational aids and modern map software make great additions to your sports car.

Additional uses of Mapquest driving directions

The most popular form of entertainment by using modern map and GPS satellites is to find the "secrets". Google earth has "secret" images that the satellites capture from outer space. Basically, the satellites hover around the earth in orbit and take constant pictures of an area until they can make one complete picture of a zone. Put these zones together, and you've got a map. This data isn't in real time and it takes months to complete the entire earth. There is more than just silly alien signs and weird things to do with Mapquest driving directions and similar software.

Using modern map software in combination with a touch screen USB LCD in dash monitor, and standalone car PC makes for an absolutely incredible navigation and entertainment package. Make sure you get the software version because wireless internet isn't available everywhere. If you're out of range, no map with internet based.

For off road and rally use, the satellite imagery in combination with Mapquest driving directions is an amazing tool to use in combination with local county GIS data. Most counties in Florida have a public GIS service, so do most other places in the country. This GIS data of public roads allows you to figure out which is public and which is private property. Knowing this data is the key ingredient to a successful off road journey. It works 90% of the time, but some places are still posted as private property. If it's posted stay out, because the map and GIS data might be out dated.

Aircraft can use Mapquest driving directions and other modern mapping software to help them locate business and other data not commonly found in avionics software. By using a a special hardware and software package, you can link up GPS data from avionics and use it with PC driven software. Use this in combination with topographical mapping and you have a top of the line navigational aid system. There's only one thing left, voice recognition.

Voice recognition with Mapquest driving directions was actually combined with early versions of Clarion's AutoPC. This windows CE based car computer featured GPS, six disc changer, and VGA output cards along with voice command and txt 2 speech. It was too ahead of it's time and nobody wanted to pay the $2,000 price tag. You can find them dirt cheap now at Ebay and other online venues. Very handy devices with capability to do everything except DVD. Add a third party DVD player and screens into your system and you can enjoy movie entertainment as well.

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