Ask lunches AskCity
Due Credit:
Gigaom.com for the news flash and AskCity for the image
The new AskCity product, which combines Ask.com"s existing maps product (revamp last February) with deep local content (information, reviews, etc.) and very good search, will make it source for maps and local business information. The reason that AskCity has such good content is that they have taken it from CitySearch, another service owned by parent company IAC. CitySearch has ten years of local content, and that is now deeply integrated with Ask"s maps product.
Key categories are Businesses and Services, Events, Movies, and Maps & Directions. The three pane interface allows users to conduct multiple searches, revise itineraries, create multi-point driving or walking directions (only Yahoo and Ask offer multi-point directions). Restaurant reservations are linked via OpenTable, event tickets can be purchased through Ticketmaster (another IAC property) and soon they will integrate movie ticket purchases through Fandango. Searches can be refined by neighborhood, cuisine or movie genre. Users can also pin items (events, places) onto a map, draw their own notes on the map, and send a permalink to the customized map to friends for printing or for their comments.
After all these fascinating feature question still remain can it survive the odds and competition of growing mapping service?
