WebProNews

Users of Ask City can whip out their drawing tools, select an area on a map, search for a relevant business or event, and embed that map on their sites or blogs. Gary Price announced the latest updates to Ask City, the local search and mapping service from Ask.com. One update added allows people to find their driving or walking directions, and adjust them by way of location.

This permits the mapper to select a point to pass through on the way from A to B. Someone going from a subway stop to a museum may want to pass by a certain coffee shop that isn't directly on the way, for example.

Ask City lets the visitor adjust the directions to include that new stop. A hyperlink to "Adjust Route" appears at the bottom of each step of the directions, for access to this feature.

The bigger update follows a similar, recent move by Google to provide embeddable maps. Site and blog publishers who want to highlight some location, and relevant places within that area, can make a map on Ask City to bring to their sites.

This feature is an evolution from Ask's earlier debut of the "search inside" feature of Ask City, according to Gary. It gives the mapmaker/site publisher the ability to present the map to visitors, rather than just a link to the map.

More importantly, embeddable mapping demonstrates in vivid fashion that not all the nifty features in search come from Google's Mountain View labs. Google may be the most familiar search site in the world, but searchers should give the Asks, Yahoos, and even Microsofts a try. They might be pleasantly surprised by what they find.