On May 5th, Yahoo announced that it has increased the functionality of Yahoo Maps by adding a lot of new local information.

Some of the improvements to the Yahoo Map search engine include:

• Specific local information added to 12,000 new neighborhoods in over 300 cities.

• Increased worldwide city information, especially in the Eastern European region.

• An increase in city label and tag information to help users find local services and locations more easily.

Source: Yahoo.com

IHT.com is reporting on a new public service that will be offered in Paris, France next month that will allow users to find open parking spaces with their cell phones or GPS enabled devices.

If this is successful, no doubt similar programs will pop up around the globe.

From the article –

A service starting in Paris next month is designed to make life somewhat easier for harried drivers by allowing them to find out, in real time, whether there are parking spaces available nearby by using their cellphones or GPS navigation devices.

The system will monitor the status of about 120 public parking garages across the French capital. From their phones, drivers will be able to find out whether a nearby garage is open and has places available.

Source: IHT.com

These “before” and “after” satellite images published by the New York Times online show the remarkably powerful information tools that satellite imagery and networked computers have put in the hands of the general public.

You can click on the “July 12″ button to see what Beirut looked like before the conflict with Israel began and click on the “July 31″ button to see what the area looks like after the conflict started.

You can view the satellite images @ Destruction in Southern Beirut.

Google maps now allows users to view traffic data from their web-enabled cell phones for over 30 major U.S. Cities. You can view traffic and congestion information on your mobile devices for these U.S. metropolitan areas to estimate delays.

The traffic-enhanced Google maps software for mobile devices can be downloaded @ Google Maps.

Technology Review is reporting on a Microsoft project that would allow map searches in real time. The advanced Microsoft mapping service would use sensors and public input to create up-to-the-minute map searches.

From the article –

Researchers at Microsoft are working on technology that they hope will someday enable people to browse online maps for up-to-the-minute information about local gas prices, traffic flows, restaurant wait times, and more. Eventually, says Suman Nath, a Microsoft researcher who works on the project, which is called SenseWeb, they would like to incorporate the technology into Windows Live Local (formerly Microsoft Virtual Earth), the company’s online mapping platform.

By tracking real-life conditions, which are supplied directly by people or automated sensor equipment, and correlating that data with a searchable map, people could have a better idea of the activities going on in their local areas, says Nath, and make more informed decisions about, for instance, what driving route to take.

The entire article is available @ Microsoft’s Plan to Map the World in Real Time.