Life after Streetdirectory.com

It has been over three weeks since Streetdirectory.com has been knocked out of commission by the SLA. And boy, life has been particularly tough on drivers like me who can’t remember road directions no matter how many times I drive to the same location.

So I looked through Benjamin Koe’s list of alternative map services, hoping to find a successor worthy of my bandwidth and clicks. Which one did I choose?

First of all, I believe that in order to be a usable online map service in 2008, you need to have the following non-negotiable core features in order of importance:

1. Map of desired location (duh, obviously…)
2. Driving instructions from point A to point B
3. What’s nearby

Everything else, like satellite imagery or personalized maps or whatever else extra is just gravy.

Thankfully, every service in Ben’s list meets requirement #1.

Singapore Expats Maps and Yellowpages don’t provide driving instructions, so they are out for me.

SLA’s StreetMap@Singapore surprisingly does not support driving instructions, although of all the services listed, they probably have the most complete road vector data. But then again, this is a free service provided by the government, so adding new features is probably not the highest of priorities for them.

Rednano Maps and the “new” MapFinder both show constant errors and just won’t work, so they ‘re out. The “old” MapFinder requires software download and installation, and that’s unacceptable, so that’s out.

So it seems that Google Maps has won by default. And it’s not a bad choice, really. It has a nice, clean user interface, satellite imagery and pretty good vector data. And I never have to worry about the service going down or being unavailable. It doesn’t show buildings as Ben rightfully points out, but this is somewhat mitigated by viewing the map using Satellite imagery. Plus Google Maps provides a lot of nifty features such as personalized maps, default locations, what’s nearby, and user-suggested locations. The user-suggested locations feature actually makes it better than Streetdirectory.com in my opinion. Oh, plus they don’t issue you cease-and-desist letters if you embed their map on your own website.

You know how people are afraid that Google is taking over the world? Believe me – it’s happening, and we are all just obliging followers.

What about ShowNearby you ask? Well, it’s essentially a mashup wrapped around Google Maps, so the core features are no better or worse than what Google provides. What ShowNearby does do well however, is augment Google Maps with local places of interest (police stations, clinics, etc.) which are otherwise not captured in Google’s map data.

I think the intention is good, but I’m always weary of companies who are overly dependent on an external services for their core functions. So ShowNearby, I support you and wish you the best, but do be careful.

Bonus Link: What happens when you try to use Streetdirectory.com now. Unintentional comedy at it’s best.