15 Jul MapQuest and GIS help Drivers
Do you remember the days of yesteryear when, in order to get from Point A to Point B, you had to actually call someone to get driving directions and write it down on a piece of paper? If you happened to get lost en route you had to actually stop somewhere, usually a gas station or a restaurant, to reconfirm or get new directions?
With today’s technological advancements, as well as the Internet, obtaining those directions for getting from Point A to Point B can now be received in a matter of seconds. As you are travelling, you can even use your wireless device to provide those directions in real time. In this regard, some of the most popular GIS based tools are those of MapQuest, Google Maps, and even Google Earth. With these apps, you can see actual images of landmarks to guide you along the way, and even see where there may be potential driving bottlenecks to help you avoid them and stay moving.
Just this past week, MapQuest announced some major updates and enhancements to its newest product offering, called the “MapQuest + Developers Geospatial Toolkit.” This comes as the result of a recently formed partnership with a business entity known as “Mapbox.” Some of the updates in this exciting product include the following:
- Software Development Kits (SDKs) and Application Protocol Interfaces (APIs) which can be used to create customized GIS applications for mobile phones.
- Brand new search capabilities which include radius, rectangle, polygon, and corridor searching mechanisms.
- Superb routing functionalities, which include point to point, multipoint, optimized, and route matrix functions. This can be used to calculate mileage reimbursement, as well as other types of logistics based data.
- Customizable base maps, satellite imagery, and terrain based tools are also available.
As the General Manager of MapQuest, Brian McMahon, states, “The launch of the new MapQuest + Developers Geospatial Toolkit underscores our commitment to partner with developers and business leaders to meet the global mapping and data provisioning needs of their companies and end-users.” (SOURCE: https://www.directionsmag.com/pressrelease/6477).
GeoTel is a telecommunications research and GIS mapping firm that researches and provides telecom datasets for more than 5,500 cities in the United States and worldwide. GeoTel’s expertise includes specialists in economic geography, geospatial engineering, web GIS, and telecommunications GIS Data infrastructure.
