This blog's parent company has launched the
second public beta of its local search page, which makes use of MapQuest and CityGuide. Essentially, it's AOL's response to Yahoo! Local or Google Maps.
The update includes:
- Better fallback for locations that cannot be mapped
- Improved driving directions widget
- More content for "top tier" cities. In other words, when you search for items like "restaurants," in larger US cities, modules will pop up with "city's best" and the like
- A number of bugfixes, including improved printing
Overall, the interface is well organized and easy to use, if rather familiar. It's nice to see AOL bringing together technologies from different sites like MapQuest and City Search to make local web search a little smoother.
Tags: aol, beta, local search, LocalSearch
