I am crazy about maps as those of you who have read one of my previous opinions on “A-Z Maps” may have gathered.
Places that I visit regularly will have a Town Map all to themselves but other ones that are “one-off” visits warrant a trip to one of two web-sites, either “multimap.com” or less frequently, “streetmap.co.uk”.
Multimap will usually satisfy the needs of the average traveller when it comes down to locating a new destination and that is what this review will be upon, but of necessity, comparisons with streetmap will be made.
Recently, I needed to go to Batley, in West Yorkshire and also Slough, just off the M4 and alas, street-maps of these two places were missing from my collection! I also had to journey to Rubery, to the south of Birmingham. My Birmingham map covered this area but unfolding the thing in the car, at about 3ft square whilst driving, posed a bit of a safety hazard so…….? Visits to the multimap site ensued!
What can start off as a simple search may progress into absorbing hours as you explore their site, for there is so much there.
At it`s simplest, it will provide road and street-maps for any location in the
U.K. All that`s needed are some basic instructions to locate your target. If you have the post-code that really makes the search child`s play. Enter it, click on search and within a few seconds the map will load. Don`t have the postcode but just the street and place name? Enter those instead and most probably that will be sufficient to get the same map as the post-code search would generate. You may find out that the search locates several places with the same name if you are looking for a wider area. So if you enter “Newtown”, the search will present you with a list of all the possible places called “Newtown” and you can then click on the one that you think is correct.
Geographic navigation about the map chosen is fairly straightforward. Various options are available. If you click on the map, it will re-centre itself about that point. Alternatively, you can move the focus of the map North, South, East or West. The scale of your chosen area can also be altered from as small a scale as 1:5000 or 1:10,000 right up to 1:200,000 or larger.
1:10,000 is best to get the street wanted and 1:50,000 will be best for surrounding roads. It`s dead easy to print off copies of the maps that can then be affixed to your dash-board for use when driving, although I would stop the car first before determining your position!
You can also get a full colour aerial photo of the map now. Coverage for this feature is of the 1:10,000 scale. More detailed map-photos can be ordered through them, making a useful present for your Dad, Uncle etc. For £19.95, you can order one with a decorative border,A3 size and personalized with your message. £24.95 will get you one of an area 500m square, sent direct on-line to your PC!
If you are unsure of which way to go or the best route to chose, directions from your start point to the finish point are easily obtained as well. They are usually quite reliable and accurate. A map to go along with the directions is also done for you. You`ll be told when to turn off, how far to go along a certain road as well as the estimated time of travel! If you need to travel to a third place en-route, the directions can be tailored to go via that location.
Multimap offers lots of other features, in addition to the basic U.K maps.
Their map coverage of the world is gradually increasing. Basic ones of most areas are available. I amused myself the other day by getting a street map of the city that I used to live in, in Sweden and revived my memories of the streets I used to drive along (I am a bit of an anorak, I know!)
What else is there - local weather, geographical co-ordinates, nearby businesses like hotels, restaurants and cottage lets are just a few of the options open to you. I found that their map of the London Underground came in very useful when planning a recent trip there. You can zoom in on an area of the tube and print off a little map for your pocket.
The popularity of Multimap seems to be increasing. They were awarded the title of “Best Internet Service” in the World Communication Awards recently and they are being used by ever more companies and businesses when links are supplied on web-sites to locate stockists, hotels, shops etc. Over 500 at last count including Ford, Mazda, Whitbread, Thistle Hotels, MFI and Land-Rover.
There is a lot more on this site and I suggest that you have a look. If you become a registered user, which is very easy to do, even more will be available to you like news letters, saving regularly viewed maps and up-dates.
As with everything in this world, nothing is perfect and there is a feed-back form that enables you to send in your comments and suggestions on how to improve or alter the site. Although the site is brilliant and free, the maps produced at a scale of 1:5000 and 1:10000 are not the best designed in the world, although they are perfectly adequate some changes need to be made to the colours used and sizes of map produced.
If you compare a 1:10000 map of the an area from Multimap with the same map from Streetmap.co.uk you will see what I mean. The streetmap one seems cleaner and crisper – roads are edged with black line and blank areas are left white, not coloured in as on the Multimap one but that’s a minor problem and probably down to personal preference.
A bit more annoying is the coverage that you get due to the map format chosen. Mutimap produce a map that is rectangular one – landscape in format whilst Streetmap make square ones. Multimap really need to convert to the square format to increase the coverage on a particular map. If they do that then Streetmap will fall even further by the wayside.
All in all – a brilliant site and growing by the day in popularity by business and public alike. It`s no wonder that they are growing in appeal.
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Comments about this review »
sarah110 22.08.2003 00:03
If you do not know the post code, you can get this quite easily at the post office web site. Sarah
ginger59 22.04.2003 21:32
good one. I always use this site to find where I am going..and they say women can't read maps
take care
Sue
andymcf 23.02.2003 12:08
I agree - this is a superb site. I've got a couple of friends who are map-fanatics, too! I love maps, but tend to keep my fanaticism under control! Great op! Andrew
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