Yahoo Mapquest is website that features open web direction services online. Using the site, concerned users can get driving instructions and map out their road trips easily. It was started in the late nineties in southern Chicago but later transfered to western Pennsylvania. The website is owned by the well renowned internet giant, AOL and is constantly one of the most popular websites in the internet. As of the late 2000s, the company has been exclusively based out of Denver, Colorado. In the mid eighties, a cartographic services company began using computers to make maps for their several customers. Much of the early code that was used for these maps was saved and used later when group launched MapQuest in 1996. A few years later, the mapping company altered their name to MapQuest as well, to create more recognition for their website. Later, in 2000, they sold the company and the site to AOL. MapQuest promises its end users with a user friendly set-up, up to date driving directions, and satellite imagery. There is also an alternative to view a route from street view. Street view is notably advantageous in that it offers consumers a complete look at the area they will be arriving at. This element comes in helpful for those who are walking rather than driving. The sophisticated route planning tool lets people easily and rapidly put together a driving route. Using it, they can add added stops and short breaks as well. Just add the breaks in, whether they are motels, gasoline stations, or rest stops, using the easy to use menus, and the website will impulsively propose the shortest way. Gas prices, valuable to almost all drivers nowadays, can be factored into a tour as well. The resourceful site, when asked to, will propose the shortest ways to go and the most affordable gas stations along the way. It does this by keeping track of local gas costs in a number of different places and updating them several times a day. The site is beneficial at saving formerly looked for and used destinations as well. This small factor means take away looking and typing for users. Places such as your home address, out of town relative’s home, and that restaurant in the city will be saved and ready for the subsequently time you need them. This can help save an enormous amount of time for the site’s many users. The company launched a state-of-the-art cellular phone application last year that is doing very well. The tool downloads onto a compatible smart phone and is used almost just like the original website. It features live traffic updates, an auto reroute, and turn by turn navigation. It turns any phone into an effective and expensive global position device and is entirely free. Map Quest’s features permit consumers to immediately find quite a bit added than just directions. The site has all the tools you want to get to nearly any destination carefully, speedily, and efficiently. The route builder, traffic maps, and gas price tool will make driving in both new and familiar places much much easier.