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Yahoo! Maps gets a face-lift
Yahoo! Maps just launched a new version based on Flash and Mike has the scoop on Techcrunch. I’m posting about it because some people seem to have issues with the user experience of the updated service, and complain that because it is built on flash, it is slower than Google’s take on maps. Here are my late night (call it early morning since it’s 7 am) thoughts on this:
Flash vs Ajax and the world
The infatuation continues between the world and Ajax - particularly when people pick Flash as the alternative. I’ve posted about this twice already, so I’ll just note that Y!’s use of flash in Yahoo! Maps is perfectly understandable: in fact, it makes no sense to go with Ajax with the kind of functionality they are aiming for and wanting to maintain 98% install base.
The thing here is that Flash allows developers to create a continuous and contained experience that 98% of the web is ready for - no browser consistency problems, no “disabled javascript” or “disable activex” (for the IE users around us), etc. It just makes sense. Plus, I’ve heard good things about the new capabilities of the Flex Platform (I’ve been reading about it on Macromedia Labs).
User Experience
People are complaining that Google Maps is more intuitive. I could argue with that. It is simpler, yes, which may be a plus in some cases (in fact, most), but it is not as fluid (if you’re not on IE - yes, I’m serious, try it out) and doesn’t have as much features.
The mini-map is a great experience, and it makes sense on a first look. It is easy to get into how the system works, even for people who have never used any online mapping application. This means that to be totally honest, I don’t get comments from people who are complaining. It may be “slower” on some platforms because, yes, flash does have issues in Macs and Linux - which I too hope they fix. But user experience-wise, this is actually really good.
A critic view
Experience and Flash aside, this new version of Y! Maps is compelling, and actually shows that Yahoo takes time to do things, but does them right (check out their new Email client and now this). If this is better or worse than Google’s approach of releasing early, I don’t know. They don’t get as much user-base because people will go with the first product that pops in, but those that wait, do get a stable web application.
I have had my issues with the Yahoo way a few times (recently, with their approach to blog search), but I can sure see when they play the right cards, and this is definitely one of those. Thumbs up.
I can’t remember if it’s Flash Player 8 or 8.5, but one of those is supposed to take advantage of OpenGL on the Mac. So, for the first time ever, Flash content will run faster on the Mac than any other OS.
Comment by Chris Peters — November 3, 2005 @ 12:45 pm