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It took a couple of months, but most of the important traffic-tracking companies are now in agreement: Google Maps is more popular than MapQuest.  Hitwise is the latest source to confirm this standing.

Fresh Hitwise info puts Google Maps in the lead starting earlier this month.  As of Saturday the 11th, its win still wasn't overwhelming (compare market shares of 39.38 and 39.14 percent), but the lines representing the two services seem to have been on pretty fixed paths as of late.

(Credit: Blumenthal)  

Mike Blumenthal noted, "It is of interest that starting on March 14th, Google Maps shows almost a month of sustained gains while Mapquest shows an equivalent drop.  It would be a reasonable to assume that the date coincides with the start of Google's expanded Local rollout."

It's hard to imagine how MapQuest could compete with this move; even partnerships with Yahoo, Microsoft, and Ask would leave it auditioning in front of a smaller audience.  The switch in ranking seems rather likely to be permanent, then.

It'll be interesting to see if anything's said about this when Google announces its first quarter financial results in two days; more than a few advertisers may be eager to follow the leader.