The days of your old printed street directory shoved under the seat of your car are certinally numbered with the increasing popularity of portable GPS units (such as Road Angel). The giants of online search however have other ideas and are locked in a battle to win over mobile phone users with mobile search and mapping applications.

The three major search players Google, Windows Live Search and Yahoo have all recently either updated or launched their mobile search and mapping answers to the market.

As a hardcore mobile users from way back i of course jumped at the chance to tinker with my toy whilst being told where to go!

Yahoo Search for Mobile (YSM) - http://mobile.yahoo.com/search

I signed up for the beta testing of Yahoo's answer to mobile search and mapping a number of weeks ago and finally got accepted via an sms (nice touch Yahoo). I did encounter problems when i attempted to download the application onto my Nokia 6288 so as yet i have not been able to actually test this product.

I have left a help ticket for Yahoo and am awaiting a response to my problems.

Windows Live Search for Mobile (WLS Mobile) - http://wls.live.com/

My first impression of WLS Mobile was very good. the maps are very readable, directions came up very quickly and were correct most of the time. The main problem i encountered howoever was that all distances were measured in miles and not KM's. WLS Mobile has however just come out of beta so i hope that this issue will have been fixed in this release.

Google Maps for Mobile (GMM) - http://www.google.com/gmm

With the recent launch of Local Business listings on maps.google.com.au i feel that GMM is currently the best mobile mapping application of the three (i bow to my google overlords). It is very easy to search for a specific business name or a business type in a specific suburb or just key in your address. All business listing results are currently pulled from TrueLocal.com.au however Google is accepting business submissions abet with a lengthly submissions process (damned snail mail).

I am however experiancing difficulties in downloading the correct version of the GMM application for my handset, apparently the file size is too large for my Nokia 6288 to download, thus i am using a generic version which does not correctly map my buttons and as such does not allow me to zoom in. A pain if i accidentally zoom out. Google will hopefully respond soon.

Both WLS Mobile and GMM managed to find an address for me and was able to calculate directions from our Artarmon offices. The kicker is that both applications gave different directions! Both GMM and WLS Mobile also required me to be very specific in how i keyed in my desired address. eg

49 Herbert St, Artarmon, NSW, Australia

Having the application know that i am in Australia would be a nice touch however having to key in the country is not a critical hinderance to usability.

The next big thing will be the ability to use your GPS enabled handset to connect to these mapping services in real time, then the Search Giants will really be telling you where to go!


NOTE: Oh the beauty of having a photographic studio in the office. No bodgy screenshots for me! Thanks Matt!