please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . october 2008 learn how and when to remove this template message mapquest web address mapquest.com type of site web mapping registration optional available in multilingual owner aol verizon communications launched 1996 ; 20 years ago 1996 alexa rank 1 098 october 2016 update 1 current status active mapquest stylized as mapquest is an american free online web mapping service owned by aol . 2 the company was founded in 1967 as cartographic services a division of r.r. donnelley & sons in chicago illinois united states . it moved to lancaster pennsylvania in 1969 . when it became an independent company in 1994 it was renamed geosystems global corporation . mapquest was acquired in 2000 by america online inc. company headquarters are in denver colorado . 3 as of may 2015 it had the second highest share of the online mapping market in the united states second only to google maps . 4 contents 1 history 2 services and programs 3 publishing 4 see also 5 references 6 external links history edit the former mapquest logo was phased out after a website redesign was introduced on july 14 2010 . in the mid 1980s donnelley began generating maps and routes for customers with cooperation of barry glick a university at buffalo phd graduate . 5 much of that code was adapted for use on the internet to create the mapquest web service in 1996 . in 1999 the company was renamed to mapquest to leverage the popularity of its online brand . mapquest was acquired in 2000 by america online inc. for a while mapquest included satellite images through a licensing deal with globexplorer but later removed them due to the unorthodox business mechanics clarification needed of the arrangement brokered by aol . in september 2006 the website once again began serving satellite imagery in a new beta program . in 2004 mapquest ulocate research in motion and nextel launched mapquest find me a buddy finder service that works on gps enabled mobile phones . mapquest find me lets users automatically find their location access maps and directions and locate nearby points of interest including airports hotels restaurants banks and atms . users also have the ability to set up alerts to be notified when network members arrive or depart from a designated area . in 2005 the service became available on sprint and in 2006 boost mobile . in july 2006 mapquest created a beta version of a new feature in which users could now build your route by adding additional stops reorder one s route and the stops along the way to avoid any turns or roads en route . users could also write out the starting address . 6 in april 2007 mapquest announced a partnership with general motors onstar that will allow onstar subscribers to plan their driving routes on mapquest.com and send their destination to onstar s turn by turn navigation service . the onstar web destination entry pilot program began in the summer of 2007 with a select group of onstar subscribers . around 2008 the general public made a significant shift away from mapquest to the much younger google maps service . 7 in july 2010 mapquest announced 8 9 plans to become the first major mapping site to embrace open source mapping launching a new site 10 separate from its main site entirely using data from the openstreetmap project . 11 on july 14 2010 mapquest launched a simplified user interface and made the site more compact . mapquest also introduced my maps personalization which enables the user to personalize the interface . in july 2012 brian mcmahon became the ceo and gm of mapquest . on 11 july 2016 mapquest discontinued the open tile api 12 13 and users such as gnome maps were switched to a temporarily free tier of the mapbox tileserver 14 while considering alternatives . 15 services and programs edit currently mapquest uses some of tomtom s services for its mapping system mapquest provides some extent of street level detail and or driving directions for a variety of countries . users can check if their country is available via a pull down menu on the mapquest home page . it offers a free mobile app on android and ios which features poi search voice guided navigation real time traffic among other features . the separate commute app allows users to enter daily commute information and then sends notifications and alerts about traffic conditions and estimated driving times . mapquest also offers a mobile friendly website . mapquest has several travel products . mapquest discover is a site for finding interesting travel destinations and travel blogs is a tool where users can publish photos and blog entries about their vacations and travel . mapquest also features a customizable gasprices page where users can type their address and compare the gas prices of nearby public gas stations . because it also features the dates that the prices were first posted it allows users to find the cheapest prices for gas similar to gasbuddy.com . however this page is only available in the united states . publishing edit in october 2006 mapquest sold off its publishing division which published traditional maps in paper format to concentrate on its online and mobile services . see also edit digital mapping bing maps google maps yahoo maps openstreetmap references edit mapquest.com site info . alexa internet . retrieved 6 october 2016 . products & services . aol corp. retrieved 11 april 2012 . hello mapquest . harlan chico 5 may 2015 . does mapquest still exist yes it does and it s a profitable business . . the washington post . retrieved 19 april 2016 . university at buffalo s alumni website . mapquest mapping tools for planning surveillance and travel . einvestigator . retrieved 21 january 2016 . john mckinley 15 feb 2009 . mapquest a symbol of everything that s gone wrong . business insider . retrieved 16 aug 2016 . mapquest opens up mapquest blog . blog.mapquest.com . 2010 07 09 . retrieved 2011 12 20 . ant posted in events 2010 07 09 . mapquest opens up in the uk mapquest devblog . devblog.mapquest.com . retrieved 2011 12 20 . mapquest open beta . open.mapquest.co.uk . retrieved 2011 12 20 . mapquest openstreetmap wiki . gnome maps and the tile problem . 2016 07 27 . modernization of mapquest results in changes to direct tile access . 2016 06 15 . mattias bengtsson . tiles and mapbox . https bugzilla.gnome.org show bug.cgi id 764841 external links edit official website mapquest on twitter mapquest openstreetmap wiki v t e aol digital media aol.com autoblog cambio engadget go90 makers moviefone on style me pretty techcrunch the huffington post advertising advertising platforms advertising.com be on convertro millennial media one by aol relegence verizon digital media services communication alto mail mail reader search dmoz mapquest search software pc aim desktop shield browser mobile kanvas pip sage vivv discontinued or sold explorer fanhouse gamedaily hometown joystiq openride patch media propeller seed spinner corporate verizon communications acquisitions criticism history v t e openstreetmap osm related persons organizations and events osm foundation state of the map steve coast osm based movements openhistoricalmap openseamap openaerialmap osm2world osm buildings wheelmap.org hot service providers commercial geofabrik ito mapbox mapzen syst me d. thunderforest osm editors id josm merkaartor potlatch pushpin vespucci osm map renders leaflet mapnik openlayers tilecache software using osm database maps.me marble monav navit oruxmaps osmand scout other crowd sourced projects and equivalents geo wiki nasa world wind wikimapia bhuvan osm closed license equivalents apple maps bing maps google maps google map maker here mapquest yahoo maps retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title mapquest & oldid 743429700 categories companies based in denvercompanies based in lancaster pennsylvaniacompanies established in 1967map companies of the 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