Anyone else notice that when Yahoo! Maps redesigned not long ago, they started getting drive times close to correct?

Example: I’m driving to Rayne tomorrow night, a trip that Yahoo used to claim took eight hours. Now it claims six hours and 15 minutes — not far off, particularly if you count the traditional Wendy’s break outside Terrell, Texas. (For the record, competitor Mapquest calls it a 6:58 drive.)

Austin — previously listed as 5-plus hours from Dallas — now clocks in at under four at Yahoo. (It’s really closer to 3:15, and weirdly Mapquest is dead on.) It’s good that Yahoo no longer assumes we’re stuck behind a left-lane Pinto at 35 miles per, I suppose, even if I’ll no longer get to feel cool for shaving a cool two hours off the expected time. It’s the little things in life, people.

Comments

10 October | 11:10 | karen

I don't know - the last time I used Yahoo it gave me completely wrong directions and I got very lost...now granted, it could have been user error but it's made me leery of Yahoomaps.

10 October | 11:11 | karen

and just out of curiosity, why in the world do you still need directions to find Rayne?

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Joshua Benton

Joshua Benton is the director of the Nieman Digital Journalism Project at Harvard University, among other things. Before that, he was a staff writer and columnist for The Dallas Morning News. (More.)