Here's something interesting - I mapped out driving directions from home to a US address using Google, Mapquest and MapPoint (a.k.a. Bing).
Google and Mapquest gave me 9 hrs 47 minutes and a distance of 882.5 kms.
Mappoint (Bing) gave me 8 hrs 30 minutes for the same 882.5 kms.
The routes were identical in all three cases - I checked.
Out of these Mappoint is the one I actually rely on because it is the most accurate in my experience. Luckily, even after Microsoft took it over and renamed it to Big Maps, it has not lost its quality.
The main reason I use MapPoint is because they still use NavTeq as their map providers - who are the same providers used by Garmin. My Garmin has always been very dependable and has never gotten me lost, and has always been pretty accurate with arrival time projections, so I am inclined to believe Mappoint's 8.5 hours rather than the other two's 9.75 hours.
Navteq are the most accurate and current providers for North America and TeleAtlas are most accurate for Europe.
TomTom uses TeleAtlas.
I used to rely on Google, but in 2008 or thereabouts they switched from NavTeq to TeleAtlas and I actually noticed errors and omissions in directions thereafter, so I switched to MapPoint (which was still independent then).
Google has recently stopped using TeleAtlas and have started to rely on their own Street Cars' output and crowd-sourced corrections, which still does not inspire too much trust from me.
Does anyone know who provides maps for Mapquest? I know that in addition to licensing maps from some provider they also use Openmaps, but I would like to know who their licensed providers are.
Has anyone here tried this experiment to see if they too get different results?
Cheers
Google and Mapquest gave me 9 hrs 47 minutes and a distance of 882.5 kms.
Mappoint (Bing) gave me 8 hrs 30 minutes for the same 882.5 kms.
The routes were identical in all three cases - I checked.
Out of these Mappoint is the one I actually rely on because it is the most accurate in my experience. Luckily, even after Microsoft took it over and renamed it to Big Maps, it has not lost its quality.
The main reason I use MapPoint is because they still use NavTeq as their map providers - who are the same providers used by Garmin. My Garmin has always been very dependable and has never gotten me lost, and has always been pretty accurate with arrival time projections, so I am inclined to believe Mappoint's 8.5 hours rather than the other two's 9.75 hours.
Navteq are the most accurate and current providers for North America and TeleAtlas are most accurate for Europe.
TomTom uses TeleAtlas.
I used to rely on Google, but in 2008 or thereabouts they switched from NavTeq to TeleAtlas and I actually noticed errors and omissions in directions thereafter, so I switched to MapPoint (which was still independent then).
Google has recently stopped using TeleAtlas and have started to rely on their own Street Cars' output and crowd-sourced corrections, which still does not inspire too much trust from me.
Does anyone know who provides maps for Mapquest? I know that in addition to licensing maps from some provider they also use Openmaps, but I would like to know who their licensed providers are.
Has anyone here tried this experiment to see if they too get different results?
Cheers