“MapQuest Vibe helps people cut through the ratings clutter by providing actual rankings based on key criteria within a richer neighborhood context,” said MapQuest VP of product, Vijay Bangaru.”Presenting neighborhood data in a structure that’s enhanced by geographic context is critical to accelerating exploration of what’s around you. We believe we have a unique platform to give people contextually relevant information that helps them make decisions.”

The product will automatically populate the user’s current city or neighborhood (assuming that city/neighborhood is available, which mine isn’t, though it is still in beta), and let you search for other neighborhoods and give you the most popular and most frequented hotspots or clusters of businesses on streets, intersections, etc.

The product determines the best-ranked businesses in the dining, shopping, activities, beauty/spas, local services, health/med, and lodging/accommodations categories.

It operates based on “vibe score,” which is generated by interactions on MapQuest.com, cartographic analysis and “user signals”.

“When you think about it, neighborhoods are fuzzy by nature – constantly changing as businesses come in and out of service and people’s interests shift,” said Simon Hill, principal product manager, MapQuest. “MapQuest Vibe evolves in the same way, providing current information to help people feel like a local wherever they are and wherever they visit. Additionally, the voting mechanism helps create wider local community purpose that reflects the online, social and physical reality of urban communities.”

“Our users have long been using MapQuest to discover what’s in and around their area, but with more than 18 million domestic points of interest, we felt there was a need to dive deeper into what we could deliver to our users,” said MapQuest SVP and General Manager Christian Dwyer. “MapQuest Vibe takes that enormous pool of information and helps people make better decisions on what appeals to them using the social heart and wisdom of the crowds.”

AOL says MapQuest gets 39 million unique visitors per month.

On the traffic feature, the company says it has extensive coverage updated every 5 minutes.

"And then there’s this OSM Stuff," says MapQuest’s Michael Iams. "So what exactly is OSM?  Why would I want to use it? OpenStreetMap is a collaborative, “by the people, for the people” mapping movement. It’s basically a living map that is improved every day by people just like you.  Disney World, Dallas (site of Superbowl XLV) or just your own neighborhoods — now you can flip a switch on your Android device and map what’s important to you."

OSM features OSM Maps, which are user-sourced maps that provide unique, local perspective nad detail, bug logging for OSM, and international maps. 

MapQuest says millions of its users are already using its mobile site from Android devices, so there should be a pretty fair amount of people using the new app. That means some more competition for Google Maps. 

The app provides a similar experience to MapQuest’s iPhone app.

It’s interesting that it has taken this long for MapQuest to get such features, though to be fair, MapQuest did have walking directions available on its MQ4Mobile and Mobile Web apps for a while. But now they’re available on MapQuest.com. 

"Walking directions will guide you down the most efficient paths and through parks, often avoiding vehicle traffic," says MapQuest’s Scott Steinke. "To use the feature, just click Get Directions, select the ‘walking man’ icon above the Start field, and enter your locations.  It’s as simple as that!"

The transit directions are available for the NYC, Chicago, Washington D.C., San Francisco, Boston, and Philadelphia metro areas. These are integrated with the walking directions. 

"To use the transit feature, just click on the train icon (right next to the walking icon), enter your locations, and select the time and date of your trip," says Steinke. "Your route map will show walking and transit segments in different colors, with icons indicating the mode of travel, station locations, and transfers. Timing information will be included in your step-by-step directions in the left column."

MapQuest (part of AOL) says this is just the starting point, and that they’ll be adding more cities and transit system/station details, as well as mobile support, bus routing, etc.

By aggregating its data from the OpenStreetMap service, MapQuest Open allows users to interact with their applicable map, which would, according to MapQuest’s blog entry, “indicate rapid change in geographic locations, points of interest and routing.”

This allows MapQuest to function as a real-time map wiki, relying on user-generated content to maximize its usefulness.  Based on OpenStreetMap’s service — “OpenStreetMap allows you to view, edit and use geographical data in a collaborative way from anywhere on Earth.” — the potential for local advertising is also huge.

Considering the push for geo-targeting-based local advertising, having a detailed map of the area is valuable to local advertisers because the more information you have, including location and any related information about the area, the more accurate the advertising will be.

When asked about the local advertising potential, Jennifer Asbury, a representative for MapQuest, responded to WebProNews with:

With MapQuest Open already live in the United States and the UK, the latest MapQuest Open introductions targets other popular countries, relative to online map searches:

* Australia: open.mapquest.com.au

* Denmark: open.mapquest.dk

* Ireland: open.mapquest.ie

* Mexico: open.mapquest.org.mx

* New Zealand: open.mapquest.co.nz

* Norway: open.mapquest.no

* Singapore: open.mapquest.com.sg

* Sweden: open.mapquest.se

MapQuest will be giving away free gas for a year to 31 people, one winner, everyday, during December.

Starting today, people can enter the sweepstakes at www.freegas.mapquest.com and fill out the “Free Gas for a Year” form. Each day at 3:00 p.m. ET a winner will be chosen and announced on the site. The last day to enter the sweepstakes is December 31 at 5:00 p.m. ET.

In addition to entering each day, people can increase their chances of winning by sharing with friends and family. By posting participation in the sweepstakes on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, participants will receive an extra entry for each person, up to 25 people, that enter.

Winners will receive a $1,220 Visa Gift Card which may be used to buy gas. MapQuest says the amount is based on the average person driving 12,000 miles each year.

“MapQuest has always been about getting people where they need to go,” said Christian Dwyer, General Manager of MapQuest.

“With the holidays fast approaching, what better way to say thank you than by giving away gas for a year. We hope you are one of the lucky 31 to win so there is one less thing to consider for your next road trip.”
 

City’s Best local editors and writers in each market have visited and selected the best food,  and entertainment destinations in each city creating directory listings for each. AOL will invite local users to chose the most popular spots.

Users can vote starting today on City’s Best  through November 30. Users can vote on categories including burgers, cheap eats, after work bar, sports bar, pizza, live music and family friendly restaurants.  A winner will be announced for each of the categories in all 25 markets on December 14.

During the voting, the businesses selected in each category will be featured on  City’s Best. MapQuest will integrate City’s Best content into its site and Patch will promote listings for businesses and communities.

The 25 markets selected for AOL’s 2010 City’s Best launch include: Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, Tampa Bay, Twin Cities and Washington, DC.
 

Google’s update has three main improvements. "Firstly, we have made improvements to the density of the photos on the map, making it easier to see clusters of photos in popular locations," explains Jonah Jones, User Experience Designer on the Google Maps Team. "On the screenshot above, you can now well see that there are a lot more photos taken on the coast than there are inland."

"Secondly, we’ve made the small thumbnails partially transparent, making it easier to see the underlying map, and helping you to stay oriented," adds Jones. "Finally, we are showing more information when you hover over a photo. Now, you can see a large thumbnail and the title of each image, so you can get a fast preview of what any photo looks like."

MapQuest’s Atlas is an encyclopedia-like service. Atlas lets you click around on places from the map view, and will bring up dedicated pages for those places with additional info, including categories like Introduction, Geography, People, Government, Economy, Communication, etc.

It’s set up a bit differently than Google’s strategy of including a Wikipedia entry. While Atlas probably has better-organized information about geographical places, Google’s Wikipedia layer probably provides a lot more info about more specific places. Both will no doubt improve over time. 

Reuters reports that the U.S. Justice Department is looking into Google’s acquisition of ITA software. Google made it pretty clear from the beginning that it expected heavy scrutiny. 

PayPal expects to be a significant part of paying for video content streamed to televisions. In a post on the company blog today, PayPal VP of Global Product Strategy, Sam Shrauger, says, "We’re sure that PayPal will play an important role in removing the friction and letting consumers enjoy their TV and movies, where and when they want."

Google has been displaying a unique logo today, which breaks apart and moves when you point your mouse to it. You can’t click on it for an explanation, but some have speculated its related to Google’s birthday. The company tweeted this today:

CNET points to an announcement from Microsoft "top game employee" Andre Vrignaud that he will be heading to Amazon. Don Reisinger says this feeds speculation that Amazon is planning a gaming push. 

Mapquest has added some new functionality to its iPhone app, which lets the user rotate the phone and the map along with it. "In our continued quest to be your mapping service of choice on iPhone, your wish is our command.  In other words, with this update, when you start navigation the top of your map will no longer always be North," explains Mapquest’s Michael Iams. "So, if you’re headed SW, the top of the map will be SW (see image on left) allowing your position icon (waving man, dog cow, car, hand dog, etc) to now travel along the road in the same way you do."

TechCrunch reports that Digg VP of Engineering John Quinn has been let go after three years due to Digg’s implementation of Database Cassandra, which has apparently contributed to the new version of the site going down repeatedly.  

I see you’ve now gotten around to requesting an interview with me or a company spokesperson, 90 days after you ambushed our namesake and founder, Craig Newmark, following his May 20th talk on veteran’s affairs and other issues unrelated to craigslist, at a conference in Washington.

You knew Craig was not in management or a company spokesperson, but setting CNN’s ethical code aside, you sidestepped company channels in favor of ambushing our semi-retired founder, complete with a misleading "set up" for your surprise questions. Now that CNN has aired your highly misleading piece dozens of times, mischaracterizing your stunt as a serious interview on this subject, and you’ve updated your "bio" to showcase this rare jewel of investigative journalism, you’re ready to try actually interviewing the company itself on this subject.

According to a New York Times piece, most people still decline to use location services. The article says these services (like Foursquare, Gowalla, Facebook Places, etc.) are mainly being used by "young, technically adept urbanites." They cite Forrester Research data, claiming that 4% of Americans have tried location-based services, and 1% use them weekly.

Microsoft’s Hotmail now supports push email, calendar, and contacts with Exchange ActiveSync. Microsoft’s Aviraj Ajgekar calls this "another milestone fore Windows Live Services."

Google showed off some of the products of its "Googley Art Wall" contest, which asked its product management teams to design their own walls:

AOL’s MapQuest launched some new updates to its recent relaunch. These include a "pick your language" features, embedded maps, and "send to GPS".

Twitter announced Site Streams, a new feature on its Streaming API, which lets services receive real-time updates for a large number of users. It streams events like direct messages, mentions, follows, favorites, tweets, retweets, profile changes, and list changes.

Samsung announced that it has sold over a million Samsung Galaxy S smartphones in the U.S. in 45 days.

"Imagine I’m planning a trip to New York City and want to visit the Empire State Building," says MapQuest’s Ted Babitz. "Instead of printing the directions, I just click "Send to SYNC" to have the information sent to my SYNC system. Once in my vehicle, I just press the voice button, say ‘Services’, and the vehicle navigation system will calculate a route and then begin guidance to the MapQuest point of interest."

"Now you can plan and research where you want to go online and send it directly to your car," adds Babitz. "Think of how many drivers will navigate with their eyes on the road, instead of looking down at a printed map."

MapQuest has been working hard to attract new interest in its service. It recently rolled out a whole new design (which it has been improving upon since), and had expanded its live traffic coverage.

This partnership with Ford should go a long way in keeping users interested too.