Here are some cool examples of how people on Pinterest use MapQuest to make their travel related pins even cooler.

How does it work?  It’s super easy, if you just want a map of a location, simply create your map on MapQuest and then click the Pinterest Button at the top right of the MapQuest page. This will create a map image and link that you can then upload to Pinterst and add to your ‘pin board’.

Careful…it’s addictive!

The content in MapQuest National Parks not only helps travelers as they plan their upcoming trip, but it’s also inspiration for the excursions on your bucket list.  Take a sec to explore all the incredible vistas, stunning natural features and incredibly preserved history that inspired us as we created this project.

Part of what makes this site unique is the videos featuring park rangers from the actual parks themselves.  No one knows Yellowstone, The Grand Canyon or any of these other amazing destinations better than the rangers that live and breathe it everyday.  The site also features breathtaking outdoor photography by QT Luong, a world-renowned nature and adventure photographer.

Whether you’re checking the parks out for free during National Parks Week (April 21-29) or you’re scheduling a summer full of weekend trips to these great natural features, we hope this new tool helps inspire your national parks journey!

After visiting my family in Oklahoma over the holidays, I took these screenshots on my flight back to Denver. This screen was taken shortly after the flight departed OKC and the attendant announced it was safe to use approved portable electronic devices.

As you fly, the flight tracker updates with your current location, ground speed and altitude as well as your estimated arrival time, distance remaining and time remaining.

The flight tracker allows you to zoom and pan to explore the map and discover more about cities and destinations Southwest Airlines serves.  You can also view the current weather conditions and forecast for your destination city.

Beautiful weather expected for Denver for the rest of the week

Clicking a pin on the map brings up the travel guide for that location

Cruising at 434mph at 35,996 feet with 157 miles to go

For more information about Southwest Airlines In-Flight Broadband Entertainment Portal, visit http://www.southwest.com/wifi/.

Happy flying and safe travels!

Quickly find where you are:

Pull up mapquest.com in your mobile browser and we’ll find your location and update it as you move around..

Discover places to go:

Find hotels, food, gas stations and more with a single tap. To help you decide, we have ratings and reviews for hotels and restaurants. We even have the latest gas prices near you.

Get directions:

When giving directions to a friend, most of us mention landmarks to make it easier: for example, “Turn left at Elm Street, immediately after the golf course”. MapQuest does the same for you by mentioning familiar places to keep you oriented and letting  you know if you’ve gone too far. And if you don’t want to drive, we’ll give you walking directions.

Easy to use:

Everything in the new MapQuest mobile web app is organized to be easy to find and easy to use. Common functions, like seeing traffic and switching to satellite view, are in the dropdown. And you can even pick from a selection of “you are here” icons, which includes everything from a battle tank to a unicorn. :-)

Please check it out and let us know what you think!

Okay, the last one doesn’t occur with regularity, but it did happen to a couple and their infant child in Massachusetts this week. The couple was so helplessly lost in the Connors Farm corn maze in Danvers that they dialed 911 and had to be rescued. By a police K-9 unit.

My first thought upon hearing this news was, “Wow — that’s quite the corn maze.” My second thought was, “If only that lost-in-a-corn-maze couple had a MapQuest app on their smartphone…”

Which is a good point in the story for me to introduce myself. My name is Lance Gould, and I’m the new editorial director of MapQuest. MapQuest is one of the most recognized and trusted brands on the web, and now we’re going to be bringing our readers editorial that can entertain and inform them while still allowing them to get the excellent navigational experiences that they’ve come to expect from MapQuest.

Our first foray into original content is a fall-foliage package called LeafQuest. In this effort, we’ve selected 150 of the most colorful leaf-peeping spots in the whole country. That’s three per state. (Well, 49 states — sorry, tropical Hawaii! — but with Washington, D.C. as a reliable stand in. It’s complicated.)

Each state gets an article providing information on the three fall-foliage spots therein, including links to the official websites of those places; a navigable map demarcating the three leaf-rich spots with pinpoints; and a video showcasing glorious fall-foliage in that state.

Also in the package are three feature essays on autumn. by such esteemed writers as Joyce Millman, a two-time Pulitzer nominee; James Parker, the entertainment columnist for The Atlantic; and Chuck Pfarrer, an ex-Navy SEAL and best-selling memoirist, who has a new book out now on the inside mission to kill Osama bin-Laden. That’s right — we have a fall-foliage story written by a rough-and-ready Navy Seal — that’s just how we roll.

Stay tuned for other great content from MapQuest. Next up is FrightQuest, our Halloween package. And yes, Hawaii, for that one, we’ve got you covered.

–Lance Gould

Great for individuals or small businesses that don’t have the resources or technical skills to build a website, InstantPage makes it easy to launch an eye-catching website in less than five minutes. The addition of MapQuest helps Go Daddy website owners drive more traffic to their brick-and-mortar storefronts.

There’s no coding or HTML knowledge required to use the MapQuest feature on a Go Daddy website. From the Go Daddy site builder tool, simply choose the widget, type in your address and an actual map – not just a link – instantly displays. Visitors who want a larger map or directions to your store just click from the widget to a pre-populated MapQuest result form. What’s really cool is businesses with multiple locations can choose to display a separate map for each location or build one map that includes them all.

GoDaddy.com, which currently manages over 50 million domain names, gives InstantPage* away free with every new domain or you can choose to upgrade to WebSite Tonight for a small monthly fee. Both options allow you to easily integrate MapQuest maps.

*XXX domain names do not include free InstantPage.

1. Lodging: Hotels & Motels and Campgrounds
2. Restaurants & Bars: Coffee and Fast Food
3. Travel Services: Airports, Gas Stations, Parking
4. Shopping: Retail Apparel, Grocery Stores, Florists
5. Activities: Tourist Attractions, Museums, Casinos, Parks
6. Local Services: Schools, Pharmacies, Post Offices

We improved our Map Toolbar so it’s quicker to use and has your primary search needs in mind. We removed the rotating carousel of categories, so you can expect to find each icon, such as the Restaurant “fork-and-knife” in the same position each time. We also recognize that you have a wide array of restaurants choices, so we expanded the ability to search for restaurants by a certain restaurant type or cuisine to help you narrow your appetite needs.

Here’s another helpful tip for your next road trip: To find the cheapest gas along your route and a rest area about halfway along through the trip, just enter your starting and ending destinations, click on the Gas Stations and Rest Area icons under Travel Services, and we’ll suggest where to stop along the way.

We’d love to hear your feedback and find out how this feature helps your trip planning needs!

P.S. If you’re a business owner and want to ensure that your business is included in the search results for a specific category, check out our Local Business Center blog post on SEO Tips and the “Categories” feature!

Eventful supplied us with over 350 star spangled events for you to choose from; whether you want to head to a local event or plan a road trip, there is something for everyone. Once you have chosen your destination, you can get directions and send them directly to your phone, GPS or car using the ‘Send To’ option.

The 4th of July is a time to spend with family and friends so don’t miss anything by getting lost or stuck in traffic. You can view traffic conditions using the ‘Live Traffic’ option and find the quickest route so you can be front row for the parade and not miss the fireworks display!

We would love to here how you spend your holiday so don’t forget to share with us on Facebook and Twitter.  Hope you have an explosive 4th of July!

Next time you are planning a trip – travel green. Instead of printing the directions, just send it to your phone. On the printer-friendly page, you’ll see the new Send to Mobile option. Just enter your mobile number, then click ‘Send to Mobile’ and a text message with your maps and directions will be sent to your phone.  The link in the text message takes you to MapQuest.com on your mobile. A mobile map gives you quick access to helpful features like:

• Pan, drag, and zoom the map to see more than what the printout would have given you
• See traffic flows & incidents
• Access location details & phone numbers
• View aerial maps
• Search nearby – a parking lot or nearest gas station?
• In the event you get lost: find yourself on the map (iPhone & Android devices)

If you haven’t already, download our iPhone or Android app and get an even better experience through FREE GPS turn-by-turn Navigation.

[* One tree equals 8,000 sheets of paper according to thinkrecycle.com.]

]]> http://blog.mapquest.com/2011/06/24/green-travel-tip-send-your-maps-and-directions-to-your-mobile-and-save-a-tree/feed/ 0 http://blog.mapquest.com/2011/06/23/business-listings-add-your-business-to-mapquest-today/ http://blog.mapquest.com/2011/06/23/business-listings-add-your-business-to-mapquest-today/#comments Thu, 23 Jun 2011 11:05:53 +0000 Catherine http://blog.mapquest.com/?p=3864 Business listings are a powerful way for local business owners to be found on the web.  Today, we’re excited to announce the beta launch of the MapQuest Local Business Center. This new tool helps businesses create or edit their free business listing on MapQuest, and also gives them the opportunity to enhance their listing on eight sites across a partner network.

Often times, business listings on the web are out of date or missing important information like the hours of operation or website. This makes it hard for customers to find that business online.

MapQuest Local Business Center gives business owners the tools to update their free listing and add a lot more helpful content. It also provides additional marketing opportunities to help bring in more customers and improve search engine rankings.

Ready to get started?  The first step is to create an account in the business center and claim your business. You’ll be asked to verify basic information including name, address and phone number.

Next, you can add additional information, including a business description, website, photos, business video, hours of operation, payment methods, parking tips and more.  You can even move the map marker to show the exact location of your entrance, which is very helpful for stores in strip malls, shopping malls and other multi-shop locations.

Once your information is entered, you’ll need to do a simple verification by phone or credit card (again, claim-your-listing is free, we’ll just authorize the card to make sure you really are who you say you are).

Once it’s verified, your updated listing is live within minutes on MapQuest.

You can enhance your business visibility by buying a Premium Listing, which includes a promotion that appears in-line with your business listing in MapQuest search results and on the MapQuest details page.  Premium Listings on MapQuest only are available for $99 a year.

You can also upgrade to the MapQuest Multi-site Premium Listings package bundle, which will distribute your updated information and promotion for $399 a year to a broad partner network: Yelp!, Yahoo!, SuperPages, CitySearch, White Pages, Yellowbook, YellowBot and LOCAL .

Head to the MapQuest Local Business Center to claim your listing!

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