… and points beyond

What is going on at Google? I wonder if the 10-20% that their employees spend on pet projects is basically subsidizing R&D for their competition. Yahoo and Microsoft are stealing their ideas–of course–and giving them polish, shine and a great user interface.

These images try to show the ease of working with the Yahoo interface. Click for bigger images. Most impressive is that search results update as I move the map. Even if I move Google’s map, the results are relative to the location searched, not the position of the map. Other Yahoo-specific features are 1) mapping directions between more than 2 locations and 2) dragging a result on the map into a destination address box for directions.

Google Maps:

Yahoo Maps: