New AskCity doesn’t find Amsterdam
Hmmm, wonder why Google’s brand in my brain is going up and not down?
You have to look no further than the new “AskCity” which is all the rage this morning over on TechMeme.
First, a little aside. Why can Google do maps with one input box while Microsoft, Yahoo, and Ask need two? That’s lame. Major kudos to Google. It simply is easier to use. And, yes, this is a major reason why I use Google instead of the others. Why? Cause I’ve done hundreds of map searches and invariably I put the wrong thing in the wrong box. Hey, I’m a “stupid Americun.” But Google makes me feel smart ALWAYS.
But, then, I ask Live.com, Google Maps, Yahoo Maps, and AskCity to find me Amsterdam on a map. Just type “Amsterdam” into any of these and see what it does.
Google, Yahoo, and Live do just fine, but AskCity takes me someplace in the United States. Lame. Strike two.
The bar has gotten higher for local services. If you aren’t international you won’t beat Google. Even for a “stupid Americun.”
Oh, and Google was faster than the rest of them too.
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December 4th, 2006 at 8:15 am
i tried putting in my city of “waterloo, on”
ask city takes me to “Weatherlea, Onancock, VA .”
December 4th, 2006 at 8:27 am
Yes! Hopefully when you get to back to the US you can drill this message home to more people - the world is a big place.
Oh, I also hate it when the United States of America comes first in some alphabetical lists of countries….
December 4th, 2006 at 8:32 am
[...] Robert Scoble geeft op zijn blog nog maar eens aan waarom Google zo goed is. [...]
December 4th, 2006 at 8:40 am
Typing in Toronto (a pretty major city, I like to think) gets you some listings in Toronto, Kansas.
December 4th, 2006 at 8:46 am
It doesn’t do much better with “London”. Even “England” takes you to what looks like a little town called England, Ohio.
Sheesh, couldn’t you guys think of some original names for your towns? ;-)
December 4th, 2006 at 8:46 am
Ask launches AskCity, a local search engine
In una puntata di Web al 100%, Antonio Gulli di Ask.com, uno dei motori di ricerca alternativi ai leader del mercato, aveva annunciato nuovi servizi (almeno nella versione dot-com) senza spingersi oltre nei dettagli. Ho notato nella bar della home di A…
December 4th, 2006 at 8:56 am
[...] However, Robert Scoble, ever the critical mind (and I love him for it), found one crucial flaw in the application. Namely, that it doesn’t seem to include international locales in its search results. For example, here’s what Scoble found when he typed in a search for “Amsterdam”: But, then, I ask Live.com, Google Maps, Yahoo Maps, and AskCity to find me Amsterdam on a map. Just type “Amsterdam” into any of these and see what it does. [...]
December 4th, 2006 at 9:20 am
Aren’t companies paying for placement on these services?
December 4th, 2006 at 9:59 am
robert
Welcome to the world that doesn’t count. If you are not in the 5 countries that Google Maps provide a geocoder for then you basically dont exist. Mashups? forgetaboutit…
I wrote at length about it: http://forsalebylocals.wordpress.com/2006/10/09/online-real-estate-geolocation/
Tony
December 4th, 2006 at 10:31 am
Google uses two boxes when you click on business listings. One box or two, AskCity at leasts returns restaurants when I search for “restaurants” in “san francico” or “dc”. Google gives me 6 hotels in the top 10 results and 4 out of the top four. Maybe AskCity is US only, but at least it can tell the difference between a restaurant and a hotel.
December 4th, 2006 at 12:24 pm
Forget Google Maps or a laptop all together, I use my Nokia N93 with Yahoo Search (S60 software), which has local search (yellow/white pages), combined with map. All in an instant & suweet.
Above else, have a great time, Robert! Too bad we can’t join.
December 4th, 2006 at 2:33 pm
Worked nicely on the two searches I did for places here in Hawaii. Sorry, rest of the world.
December 4th, 2006 at 3:51 pm
[...] As pointed out by Scoble: [...]
December 4th, 2006 at 3:56 pm
Robert,
According to Om’s interview it is only for US cities right now.
http://gigaom.com/2006/12/03/askcity/
- Sean
December 4th, 2006 at 4:27 pm
Sean: and that’s lame when you’re trying to get people to switch off of services that already do more than just the US.
December 4th, 2006 at 7:39 pm
You’ve been to Cork a lot recently… ever noticed that not one of these sites can search on a street address in Ireland?
December 5th, 2006 at 8:37 am
Robert, I don’t disagree. However, the PM states that international is coming in 2007. I have no problem with them launching the product and then quickly adding international support. In fact, launching early & adding features (like Intl) actually seems like a better approach.
December 5th, 2006 at 3:33 pm
Hey Robert, I’m not sure if it’s fair to say that Yahoo requires two boxes for map search. Single input for an address on either Google or Yahoo. The difference comes in doing direction mapping. In that case, the second box is for your next destination when getting directions(which leads to a third box, should you be mapping a multi-point route).
Now, I’m sure we could debate if the onebox approach is most appropriate for directions. I would say you’d have a tough time arguing that it’s hands down the best way to go about that use case, though.
December 5th, 2006 at 9:15 pm
I was surprised they didn’t integrate permalinks as well. I tried http://city.ask.com/indianapolis and http://city.ask.com/city/indianapolis and there’s a page not found on either.
December 6th, 2006 at 2:53 am
i seem to remember google maps being terrible concerning the rotw when it first appeared, give them a chance to sort it out internationally and I’m sure it’ll be a different stroke for diff….
i expect all the map making companies are pleased another search engine is giving away its business for free
December 8th, 2006 at 2:24 am
When I search for burgers in ny on AskCity, I actually get real local burger places, not 10 results for Burger King like Google brings up. I understand Burger King serves burgers, but I(and most people as well) don’t need web to tell me that, neither do I need reviews for Burger King. At least AskCity is smart enough to understand that.
August 31st, 2007 at 10:41 am
[...] Scoble geeft op zijn blog nog maar eens aan waarom Google zo goed [...]