Google Maps Edges Closer To MapQuest
A few weeks ago I thought I was onto something very hot. I was getting ready to announce that Google Maps had caught up to MapQuest in share of US Internet visits. I decided to wait a week to be sure things held. Since then, MapQuest has regained …
Context & Ripple Effects
This is a milestone moment in a long-running contest for US online mapping traffic. MapQuest had dominated directions since the web's early days — rivals had been circling since at least competitors first challenged MapQuest in 2005, and MapQuest itself responded with a beta relaunch in late 2007 as Google closed in. By early 2008 the gap was clearly narrowing, with Hitwise tracking Google Maps making steady inroads against the leader month after month.
First-order effects
- Hitwise's visit-share data shows Google Maps has effectively reached parity with MapQuest among US Internet users, briefly overtaking it before MapQuest regained the lead — meaning MapQuest's long-held #1 position is now contested week to week rather than secure.
Second-order effects
- MapQuest faces mounting pressure to keep shipping product improvements just to defend traffic share against Google's faster-moving mapping stack, while advertisers and partners begin hedging between two now-comparable audience bases.
Third-order effects
- If the crossover holds, online mapping shifts from an incumbent-with-challengers market toward a duopoly-style battle where data richness (imagery, local detail) decides winners — a dynamic that later shaped how each player built out its map database.
The trend: Traffic-share leadership in consumer web mapping is migrating from first-generation incumbents like MapQuest to search-driven platforms that bundle maps into broader ecosystems — one data point in the consolidation of everyday utilities around a handful of platform giants.