MapQuest and the beginnings of web cartography

Abstract

There are times when technological innovations culminate in a series of rapid developments. We look back on these times with a certain awe. This is true for the three years in the mid-1990s, between 1993 and 1996, when web cartography came to be. The three years begin with the introduction of the first graphical World Wide Web (WWW) browser, Mosaic, in April of 1993. It ends three years later in 1996 with the introduction of MapQuest, the first widely-available, Web-based mapping program. To put the period between 1993 and 1996 in context, it begins exactly 10 years after the military network called ARPAnet transitioned to the US National Science Foundation NSFnet and the new Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). This occurred on January 1, 1983, a date that many associate with the beginning of the Internet. The event contributed to a major expansion of the Internet. A quarter-century later, we can view this time as a rapid evolution, if not revolution. Given the current importance of the Internet and the World Wide Web to cartography and our daily lives, it is fitting that we examine these years and how innovations during this time contributed to a dramatic change in map distribution, and map use. The specific purpose here is to examine MapQuest, the developments that preceded it and how it changed the way we use maps. We divide this retrospective into three timeperiods: (1) a pre-Mosaic period; (2) the time between Mosaic and MapQuest; and (3) the MapQuest era. Finally, we look at how MapQuest, major, online map provider between 1996 and 2009, was ultimately overtaken by Google Maps.