I remember when everyone used mapquest. I think the term “map quest it” was an actual thing. The first time I saw google maps after using map quest for a cpl of years. I was completely blown away. . I think the thing I found most fascinating was that you could smoothly scroll between sections on the map without having to wait for the browser to reload the page. I had never seen Javascript (asynchronous data transfers) used like that before. I think people take it for granted that you can use the hand to grab a section and pull yourself seamlessly around a map now. But back then you clicked on an arrow then waited for the tiles to reload, it was painful. I think I continued to use Mapquest maybe for 6 months after that, thinking that surely they would implement this awesome new ui. but, nope… They never did… Maybe the fact that google maps started out as an application led to them making the UI similar on the web.
Anyways, a little more in depth of what I am talking about is here: https://medium.com/@lewgus/the-untold-story-about-the-founding-of-google-maps-e4a5430aec92
Interesting read, thanks for posting!
