ON THE POWER OF AOL, VIA MAPQUEST

LONG HORSE-RACE

You have to do a double-take when you see a headline (via ZDNet) like this:

"Online maps market: MapQuest - 71%, Yahoo! Maps - 32%, Google Maps - 25%"

It took a couple of seconds for my brain to translate MapQuest into AOL, since the latter acquired the former half a decade ago.

So, first take-away, AOL still rules in online maps, despite all the high-tech, Web 2.0-falooting efforts of GYM notwithstanding.

Again, the power of mainstream users is a wonder to behold.

As this AP News article notes:

"MapQuest Inc., acquired by America Online Inc. in 2000, was the first mover and remains tops in Internet cartography as it heads toward the 10th anniversary of its Web site in February."

This post by the Kelsey Group explains the numbers:

"ComScore reported that while internet use grew 7 percent overall in 2004, online map site traffic increased 33 percent to 51.3 million. Mapquest held a 71 percent of the market in September according to ComScore, while Yahoo Maps followed with 32 percent, and Google Maps with 25 percent. The overlap in use across these sites accounts for the numbers not adding up to 100 percent."

These numbers also illustrate how long it takes most times for leading market shares to erode, despite all the best and innovative efforts of worthy competitors like Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft. 

Tune in again though in a few quick years.

Comments

[Zoli Erdos]

Those numbers suggest a few other things, too:

1 - Junping on new technology vs. loyalty. Mapquest created this domain and clearly owns it - but Yahoo and Google are not in the same club. Yahoo maps has been around for years as a "me-too" and the fact that in less than a year Google almost caught up with them is quite amazing - apparently there is not much loyalty here, people jumped for the sake of better technology.

2 - The other number I find surprising is the 33% overall growth while Mapquest retained their 71%. I would have expected "new" customers to care less about who the market leader is and go to Google in larger %.

[srk]

It is probably because of all the corporate sites that use Mapquest for their location and directions pages.