ant to know how to get from here to there Curious about the layout of a new city or neighborhood Don t want to lug around that old Rand McNally Road Atlas every time it s time to take a trip Then you ll appreciate the detailed maps available at MapQuest, the Web s most popular online mapping site. What s really cool, though, are the services that MapQuest offers above and beyond basic maps which you ll learn about in this chapter.

Most users never get beyond MapQuest s home page (www.mapquest.com), shown in Figure 20-1. That s because the home page lets you create basic maps by entering an address into the Get a U.S. Map section and then clicking the Get Map button. If that s all you need to do, the home page is the place to do it. To get to all the cool stuff on the MapQuest site, however, you ll need to click one of the navigation icons at the top of the home page.

MapQuest is not your typical dot-com business. The company has been around long before the Internet since 1967, to be exact, when it was founded as a division of R.R. Donnelley & Sons, one of the nation s largest commercial print ers. Now a subsidiary of America Online, MapQuest offers online mapping and directions through its own site, via AOL, and to hundreds of other Web sites.

What most people don t know is that the Web site is just part of what MapQuest does. In addition to its Internet mapping service, MapQuest creates custom mapping programs for textbooks, directories, travel guides, and other reference works. The company provides business-to-business mapping and routing solu tions to more than 1,400 major companies via its MapQuest Business Solutions division. In addition, the MapQuest Digital Mapping Services division provides digital and print cartographic products to the publishing industry. Learn more at the company s parent Web site (www.oneworldmapping.com).

There are many ways to create a map on MapQuest of which only one is avail able from the home page. All the other options are available from the main Maps page, shown in Figure 20-2, which you access by clicking the Maps icon at the top of the MapQuest home page.

All your mapping options are listed on the left side of the page. While the default mapping method is to enter a specific address, you can also create a map by entering the following: Name of a nearby airport

This flexibility proves to be extremely useful. For example, if you want to dis play a map for an entire metropolitan area, use the City option. If you want to see just where a particular zip code lies, use the Zip Code option. If you want to find out where a person is calling from, use the Area Code option. It s that easy. But that s not all. Here are few more mapping secrets:

at, or the ampersand (&) between street names. For example, to map the intersection of 42nd Street and Broadway, enter 42nd street and broadway. Map an interstate or highway on the Address page by spelling out (completely) the words interstate or highway. For example, to map the whole of Interstate 65, enter interstate 65. You can use the words north, south, east, and west, or the single-letter abbreviations (N, S, E, W) but not the two-letter abbrevi ations No. and So. You have to spell out the entire city name; you can t use a city abbrevi ation. So New York City can t be abbreviated NYC you have to spell it out.