Despite having done this article now for over two years now I have only just scratched the surface of the number of Internet sites offering good quality services free of charge and one additional site that recently crossed my mind was MultiMap which offers a number of free services relating rather unsurprisingly to the subject matter of maps.
Just head to Multimap.com and you´re instantly offered the option to search for a place to be mapped; simply enter in your place name or postcode and instantly a fairly detailed map of the area is drawn on to your screen. Once here you can zoom in to or out of map or scroll it in different directions so you can take a look at the topography of the place you have requested to look at so the most practical use for the majority of us would be to find addresses. Lets say for example that you knew someone who lived in Penwill Way then you could simply type that into Multimap and take a look around for road names that you know close by. Your searches don´t just have to be limited to those in the UK as Multimap also provides maps of the USA, Australia and Europe.
The other substantial feature that may take your interest is that there is a fully featured navigator built into the website - You simply enter where you´re starting and then where you want to end up and Multimap will draw your route for you along with directions and distances. This is extremely helpful if you´re going to an area of the country you´ve never been to before as directions are given right down to a couple of metres so if you know that someone lives in Gordon Road, Cardiff then the website will give you directions right down until the last turning point for you to print and take along so you need never be lost again. Although this isn´t perfect; I have in the past found myself ignoring their directions on a number of longer trips in order to take a shorter route that I know of, you certainly can´t complain too much about its accuracy. They are promising that the whole of Europe will be added to the direction finder which obviously means that if you want to get from Paignton to somewhere in Paris then the website should show you step by step including possible ferry ports that you could use and hotels that you could stay in.
In a separate section of the website you can type in your postcode then it will allow you to see an aerial view of the area in question. Of course, for interests sakes you can also type the areas or postcodes of your customers, family or friends live; not all that helpful but enough to keep you interested and entertained for a few minutes.
Finally, there are also a number of other additional items of interest such as the London Underground Map, support for wireless devices such as PDA´s and WAP phones, traffic watch, regional weather forecast although some of these services are chargeable.
The most importantly point to note is that the most useful features such as the map viewer and direction finder are completely free of charge so it´s certainly worth a look to see if this site could possibly save you a lot of time when map reading.
Multimap.com - July 2007
