The MapQuest Interactive Atlas, available in various iterations, is the heart of the site. Using it, a visitor can find, view and customize U.S. geographic data in an infinite number of ways. For example, you can call up a specific business location or street address and tailor your view of the area surrounding it—other businesses can be shown on the map, as can restaurants and hotels, local points of interest, and even Web sites (i.e., their physical addresses). What's more, you can save the maps you create and return to them. In fact, upon "joining" MapQuest (membership is free and is required for use of the site's customized features), you're asked to bookmark the resultant page—this becomes your starting point for subsequent visits. The Interactive Atlas is also available in Java- and ActiveX-enhanced versions, for those who can use them (ActiveX, Microsoft's alternative to Java, is currently available for Windows 95 and NT users only).

For travelers, MapQuest dispenses customized driving instructions via a service called TripQuest. Visitors to the site can request a suggested travel route by typing in their starting point and destination; TripQuest returns a recommended route within a few seconds. We tested this capability by asking TripQuest to provide driving instructions for several journeys in and around New York. While the suggested routes were not always the shortest possible, they were always logical and direct enough to be useful—and multiple routes can be provided for any one trip. TripQuest is an excellent example of Web interactivity used to practical effect.

So is the MapQuest site as a whole. There are minor flaws (Interactive Atlas can seem counterintuitive at times), but MapQuest basically delivers what it promises: applications which make the Web more interactive.

(Reviewed May 7, 1996)