Although it takes a little while to load, Fresh Logic Studios’ Atlas map system is pretty amazing. The application allows for worldwide directions, zooms in with incredible detail and has a very spiffy interface. I did some basic testing to see how robust the system was, and I’d say that with the possible exception of Ask’s maps (which are US only for the moment), Atlas is the best of the bunch (particularly for Europe).
My first task was to map directions from Munich (Germany) to Milan (Italy), a trip I’ll be taking next month after SES London. The initial search wasn’t very effective (it mapped a trip in the US from two similarly named cities), but luckily, Atlas has right-click functionality that allows you to pinoint a location (much like Ask) and select directions to or from it.
Fairly impressive, but not nearly as cool as what came next…
Once you sign up for Atlas’ membership system, you can see movie times, wifi access, gas prices, traffic, events and local bloggers (all based on user-contributed or scraped data). It’s got a lot of the coolest mashup features built right in. One item that’s missing is the ability to link directly to the URL – you can choose to “email” a page and the link will appear in your email application, but there’s no direct link mechanism.
I would have to say that overall this system is remarkably impressive in scope and design. All I want now is an API 🙂
