I first came across MultiMap.com through the use of Lycos. They must have some sort of partnetship with Lycos where the Lycos website used part of the MultiMap site and you were able to look at street maps on the Lycos website. Since then I have used this website whenever I want to find a place that I want to go.
~~The Services~~ The services that MultiMap.com offers, without sound too thick hopefully, are all to do with displaying maps for you. There are many different types of maps you can view, here is a short list of the major types of maps and services available for you to look at.
~ Street Maps and Travel Directions for the UK and Europe. ~ Detailed Maps of the Wolrd. ~ Aerial Photos of London and other UK Cities. ~ An Interactive
London Tube Map. ~ Local Information to complement their UK and European Maps. ~ Links with Webcams.
~~The Website~~ The homepage for MultiMap.com is pretty standard, it basically sets out what services the website offers and has a couple of adverts. This is all layed out very well and a good use of colours has been made, these are not too bright and not too dull (just the right colour to make a good impression!). To access the services of the website you use the option bar, which is located at the top of the homepage. This has the following options; Home, Maps & Directories, About Us, Business Services, Free Maps and Links, Media Zone, Developers' Zone and Help.
Maps & Directories - When you click on this link you get a search page appear with fours tabs, these are; Map, Directions, Local Info and World Map. On the Map Tab you can search for Building Names, Street, Town or PostCode. When you search if the place you are looking for is found it will be displayed. This map at the moment is not very detailed but can be zoomed into street level. When you click on the Directions Tab you get a route planner. You can input where you are starting, where you are going, if you want to go via anywhere, when you want to start and you can either get the "Quickest" or the "Shortest" route. Before you can get your directions you have to verify the place you are travel to and from, just to make sure this is correct. When the route has been planned for you, you get a review of the journey, much like the one you get using AutoRoute (this is very detailed). When you click on the Local Info Tab you can search on Placename, PostCode and Grid Reference within the UK for information. The website gives you a map and you can find information on Hotels, Pubs, Restaurants, Sports Centres and much more… When you click on the World Maps Tab you can search for Major Cities, Regions and Counties. This is much the same as the local maps but they don't go into so much detail.
The rest of the links are all to do with their business side of the site. The public side is the free use of this site for route planning, finding information on cities and providing maps of cities. The business side of the website focuses on selling products like store finders for use both on the web and on WAPphones.
Although some parts of the website are slow most of it is very quick and very efficient. The only slow part that I found was the route planner, but I should think this would involve a lot of processing and it is no wonder it takes quite a long time.
~~The Underground Map~~ This map is basically the same as the other normal maps apart from the fact that it is of the underground. You can zoom into see the map in more detail, which you will need to do, as you can't see much at the scale it is originally at. I can see this as being quite useful as you can plan your journey in advance, you just need to know where each of the stations appear in London.
~~The Aerial Photos~~ This for me is the most interesting part of the website. You can view what different areas look like from a couple of miles up, cool! The only problem with this is that there are not many aerial photos, there are only about 30 and some of these are about six years old.
~~Overall~~ This is a very useful website, which should be used by anyone wanting to have access to a map of the UK. I have used the route planner and although it doesn't printout very well and I wouldn't use it at home as it would be way too slow it was quite accurate. The website has been well designed and overall is quite fast, especially considering how much detail must go into the maps on the website.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
I've used their maps on my own site. Very useful. Check the map on aerial photo option, very impressive. Ive tried it for Newcastle and Manchester. Mike
GrUnGe_GaL 09.04.2001 15:01
superb opinion! i think this is a great site, especially for my party recently to give directions to everyone from here!
very helpful by (93%):
helpful by (7%):
