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Not too long ago, for most of us, MapQuest was the default online mapping service. Even today, after a number of changes to its site, MapQuest is still one of the most popular places to get maps and directions online, even though other services like Google Maps or Microsoft's Bing Maps (formerly known as Live Maps) offer more features.

Today, MapQuest released its first iPhone app, MapQuest 4 Mobile (iTunes link), and after testing it for a while, it quickly became clear that MapQuest's app is a worthy challenger for the iPhone's built-in mapping application, which is based on Google Maps.

Street View in Google Maps is a somewhat controversial feature, but there is no denying that it is quite an interesting product. Until now, however, navigation along streets was a bit difficult, but Google just introduced a new, smarter way to navigate Street View's panoramas. Instead of having to click from one arrow to the next, you can now simply double-click anywhere in an image and Google will take you to this point. In addition, Street View now also recognizes the facades of buildings and will show a rectangle when you mouse over a house. Thanks to this, you can now also easily zoom in to any spot in an image by just double-clicking.

Google's VP of Engineering, Vic Gundotra, showed both a new mobile version of Gmail running on the iPhone and HTC Magic today, as well as a new mobile version of Google Maps running on the Palm Pre. The new mobile Gmail app, which Gundotra demoed at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, makes extensive use of new features that are only available in HTML5. Among these new Gmail features were offline access, even in the browser, as well as support for labels.

MapQuest was once the unquestioned leader among online mapping services. And while others like Google Maps or Microsoft's Live Search Maps offer a more modern interface and far more features than MapQuest, the latest data from Hitwise shows that MapQuest still commands almost 40% of the market. Even on the fast-moving Internet, old habits clearly only die very slowly.

Developer Paul Mison has created an interesting Flickr mashup that shows you a map of the locations with the most photos based on a criterion of your choice. By default, that's a tag, but the mashup can also display your photos, the photos of your friends and family, or those belonging to your contacts.

Google Maps underwent a major redesign today and the new street view is pretty fantastic. Now users can drag a little human figure named "Pegman" over any streets that light up blue and get a preview of Street View for that location. When Pegman lands, the whole map view turns into a Street View viewer and there's a button to expand that view to take up the whole horizontal length of your browser.

These are very welcome changes that really help take advantage of the eye candy that is Street View in Google Maps. There's a whole lot of changes that were made today, all with the long-term fight for map users and their ad-viewing eyeballs in mind we're sure. Today's changes are great, though.

Google just released an iPhone version (iTunes link) of its popular Google Earth desktop mapping application. We have seen a wide range of interesting iPhone applications lately, but few have been as impressive as Google Earth on the iPhone. Google has taken the basics of the Google Earth interface and brought them to the iPhone. The app feels highly responsive and effectively mimics the desktop application on the iPhone.

Back in May, Google demonstrated their Street View technology on their upcoming mobile OS, Android. The app looked great, and naturally everyone assumed that Street View was going to be a big selling point for the Android phones. However, Google has just announced a new version of Google Maps for Mobile which brings Street View to mobile phones everywhere with only one glaring exception: the iPhone. With Android only days away, was Google afraid of stealing Android's thunder?

We reported on the controversy around Google's Street View in the UK earlier this month. At that time, a number of UK privacy activists had raised concerns over the privacy implications of Street View and challenged Google's ability to automatically blur faces in the photographs used in the service. According to the BBC, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) investigated these concerns and has now announced that it was "satisfied" with Google's ability to blur out faces and registration plates.

The Google Maps team today rolled out yet another update. This time, they have decided to simplify the layout by putting more focus on the search form and taking away the tabs underneath it. Thanks to this update, the maps on the page get a bit more screen-estate and searching for directions has become a bit easier as well. This update comes just a few weeks after Google Maps added walking directions to its feature set.

Google added walking directions to its Google Maps product today. The walking directions ignore one-way streets and Google Maps tries to give pedestrians the most direct and flat route possible. As Google itself acknowledges, the Maps database does not currently have a lot of information about sidewalks, pedestrian bridges, or if a specific street is simply too busy to cross. They are, however, working on improving these aspects of their maps.

Walking directions are available everywhere Google offers driving directions.

The Google Maps team just announced the addition of a new feature to Google Maps: the ability to contribute to and edit maps through Google Map Maker. Users can now edit and moderate various map features, including roads, lakes, power lines, and bike trails among others.

While Google already allows users to create and share new map layers through 'My Maps', this is the first time it is actively looking for help in creating maps (almost) from the ground up.

At the Where 2.0 conference today Google announced the availability of a new Flash API for Google Maps. From Flash microsites to embedded media players to beautiful cross-platform AIR apps on the desktop - expect to start seeing interactive Google Maps embedded in a lot of unusual places soon.

A substantial portion of the web's creativity can be found in the Flash developer community.

Roofarena is basically the Million Dollar Homepage concept built as a graphical layer on top of Google Maps. The idea is that any roof in Manhattan is for sale and users can "virtually" purchase a roof and add their own design. In a post about copycat ideas last year, we advised that if you "do feel the need to borrow an idea, you should definitely make changes and try to innovate and push the concept in new directions." Roofarena definitely does that, but we also advised that you do something to "ensure a greater chance of success" -- we're not sure that the site does that.

A study that will appear in tomorrow's New Scientist magazine found that social media sites, blogs, and instant messaging services were better at connecting people and providing warnings during emergencies than traditional sources of such information, according to the Telegraph. Dr. Leysia Palen, an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of Colorado, led a research team that studied uses of social media during last fall's wildfires in California and last spring's shootings at Virginia Tech for the report.

Since launching in May of last year Google's Street View maps have expanded from the original 5 cities to 44 regions. Street View has largely been seen as a "fun" tool -- Wired held a contest to find the best images captured from the service last spring, for example -- and some have even found it rather creepy. Today, Google added Street View functionality to its directions application to create a very helpful service.

In an understated post today to the Google Lat Long blog, a major new wrinkle in online mapping was announced. Google Maps can now be edited by anyone. Once signed in with your Google Account, you can change the details or location of any listing on Google Maps, or delete a location's listing altogether.

Recent edits, which you can view through a strange interface here are going to be a nightmare.