I did a search on Google for an address in Nederland, TX this evening and Google Maps tried giving me a result that was miles from where I knew the address had to be.  Google’s results were almost in Groves.
I clicked the back button, and Google at least has the decency to link the map results to yahoo right after their own map link.  Okay, cool… we’ll see if this one is any closer… right on the dot… ok, I want to print directions for Christle, so I click on the directions link, and there is an option to try the new Yahoo Maps Beta.
Now I’m kinda excited when I type in our address and Yahoo finds my house precisely.  Google Maps has my house in the middle of an intersection 1/2 mile down the road, which isn’t far, but it’s kinda confusing.
Now, I know I live 50 miles east of Houston and 25 miles west of Beaumont, so there’s going to be some lag before all this mapping technology gets perfected, but how Yahoo Maps is more precise than Google is beyond me.  I thought Google’s name derived from the amount of money they had – Googillions… which led me to believe that Google would be the leader in this sort of technology.  Either having money doesn’t mean everything, or Yahoo knows how to keep their mouths shut about their finances, or they have some pretty brilliant people working for minimum wage.  Either way, if I had money to invest, I’d put it in Yahoo before they come out of Beta with their new maps.
The problem I have with their beta right now is the fact that anytime you move in a map, whether your panning or zooming, it creates an entry in your browser’s history.  I’d prefer the maps work within one page rather than create a new entry every time I move… hopefully they’re already working on the fix.