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!

Luckily, the editors at City’s Best have done all the legwork for you this year. Simply click on the “Mom’s Day” icon in our Map Toolbar on MapQuest.com for your city location to see a list of these recommendations.

They’ve combed 25 cities across the country picking out the best brunch spots, special activities and impressive florists to ensure Mom has a lovely day (and that you don’t endure guilt or three weeks of passive aggressive behavior).

Not that she’d ever do that.

Ashley McAdams is a Senior Editor of Local at Huffington Post Media Group.

Trying to attend (or avoid) one of the nation’s top St. Paddy’s Day parades? Here are some My Maps that outline events in New York, Chicago, Boston, Denver, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Dublin, Ohio, San Francisco and Philadelphia.

Throughout December, MapQuest is giving charities front-row access to 47 million people via a charity icon on our Map Toolbar. Thousands of charitable locations are mapped across America and we’re excited to be fueling the spirit of giving.

MapQuest is honored to be working with Habitat for Humanity, Feeding America and the American Red Cross Blood Drives this holiday season (December 1-31, 2010), displaying charity locations on MapQuest.com in an effort to facilitate giving. Whether it’s donating food or clothes, giving blood, or helping to build a house, this feature makes it easier for people to give back this holiday season.

We hope you take the time to donate and share this experience with your friends and family!

MapQuest is making sure that you’re not missing out on any of the fun and fright this year so we’ve partnered with Hauntworld.com and Examiner.com to provide our millions of users access to Haunted House locations all over the U.S.

To see what’s happening in your area, just click on the ghost on our Map Toolbar.  If you don’t see any icons appear on the map, try zooming the map out.

Now you can find the Haunted House nearest you AND discover the quickest route to get there on MapQuest.com. That way, you’re only a few minutes away from the spooky, scary, creepy, crawly excitement!

Happy Halloween!

When you first visit open.mapquest.in in your browser – the map is centered on India and the default language is English.  Here’s a nice map of Mumbai that has a lot of detail that has been created from scratch by OpenStreetMap (OSM) mappers from all over the world.   This new Open site has all the great features that our regular MapQuest sites have that you’re used to – a map style that is easy on your eyes, single box search for cities and locations of interest, and of course, driving directions with draggable routes enabled.

Another wonderful thing about this new site for India, is that it also has all the great elements on our MapQuest Open sites – map tiles updated every 15 minutes, with driving directions and search being updated daily.

Do you have a concern that the map data is incorrect or you just want to add in that great restaurant?  Simply right-click anywhere on the map, edit the data in OSM and it’ll appear in our tiles within minutes.

We also have these same great map tiles available for any website developer to use, for free!  Just check out the multitude of information on our Developer Network.

In addition to India, we’re continuing to round out our European map sites by launching two more MapQuest Open international sites in Europe: Austria and Belgium!

And…as if that wasn’t enough – we’ve also enable our carousal search bar for easy searching on the map near your location. Happy Mapping!

One box search isn’t the only thing we want to tell you about.  Try out some of these helpful features:

• The Map Toolbar – 1-click to find restaurants, coffee shops, hotels, etc right on your map
• My Maps – Create a map with of favorite restaurants or your weekend road trip and then save it or share it to Facebook® or Twitter
• Print & Send – More ways to customize your printed map or just skip the print and send it to your email, mobile phone or car

You can also check out our Take a Tour video (below) or read about features one at a time.  These both review the basics like getting directions and also show you some new features that are definitely worth trying out.

We hope you try out the new MapQuest – www.new.mapquest.com – and let us know what you think!  We love hearing from you – good or bad, nice or ornery, funny or not-so-funny ;-).  Let us know if you can’t find what you’re looking for and we’ll do our very best to make it right.

Hope you enjoy the New MapQuest!

But now with 4^th of July Events locator button in our Map Toolbar on MapQuest.com, you can see a convenient display of the events going on in your area and get directions from your house at the same time!

We’ve compiled a list of over 500 of the best 4^th of July events nationwide, and with our mapping expertise, we can provide the best route to get you to the front of the action as quickly as possible.

Now, when the fireworks start going off, you’ll be able to avoid traffic and get the best seat in the house!

Find out where the best July 4th events are going on around your area at our brand new beta site! Or on our current site.

Hope you have a great 4th!

In order to try it, go to MapQuest.com, get a map of your area and simply click on the Easter Egg icon in the tool-bar on the right-hand side of your map. The events in your area will then appear on your map (the Easter Egg bubbles). From here, you can click on each to get more details about the event. If you do not see any Easter Eggs on your map, try zooming out.

If you are looking for a restaurant for brunch or even a hotel for the in-laws, the toolbar can help with that too. Just use the up and down arrows to scroll and find the icon that you’re looking for.

Hopefully this tool makes your holiday planning a bit easier this weekend. Happy hunting!