Internet maps can guide you or give you the runaround

Driving along Maryland’s Eastern Shore, I knew I should have been whizzing onto a four-lane state highway, but the directions I clutched in my now-sweating hands -- directions from an online mapping program -- told me I should “keep straight onto Black Dog Alley.”

I didn’t need a dog’s instincts to know this “alley” wasn’t the best option. I had at least a nodding acquaintance with the area and a map from the rental car counter. Without them, I would have been stuck on back streets and country roads.

Low tech sometimes still triumphs over its electronic counterparts, but for many people, Internet mapping services are the solution to one of the oldest challenges of travel: accurate maps and directions.

Maps and directions, of course, are not the same thing. An old-fashioned printed map, available at specialty bookstores, the auto club or the local gas station, is really only as good as its navigator. For some people, however, mastering the spatial relationships of those crisscrossing lines is nearly impossible.

At the high end of the tech spectrum is a global positioning system, or GPS. Many cars now come equipped with such systems, and they are increasingly showing up in rental cars. The systems use satellites to pinpoint your location and translate that data in real time to a map, and some also “speak” directions to the driver. You also can buy a portable GPS unit, although that can set you back $1,000 or more. Even then, you are still using much of the same data that websites use.

Mapping websites fall in the middle ground. They provide a map and written (“turn left at Maple Street”) directions, so it’s not surprising that such sites are among the most visited on the Internet. In December alone, nearly 40 million people went online for maps and visited sites including the three most popular: AOL’s MapQuest (www.mapquest.com), Yahoo Maps (maps.yahoo.com) and MSN Maps & Directions (www.mappoint.msn.com).

Although they perform the same function, these and other mapping websites will give you widely varying results. For that recent drive between the Maryland cities of Catonsville and Salisbury, the suggested routes ranged from 103 to 116 miles.

Companies such as Chicago-based Navigation Technologies and New Hampshire-based Geographic Data Technology provide much of the data used by mapping sites. Navigation Technologies says it has 400 full-time employees who drive millions of miles each year just to keep its database current.

David Schafer, general manager of MapQuest, says his company uses about a dozen data providers, then employs proprietary software running complex algorithms to sift through the raw map data, deciding the best route.

“Look at it like a recipe,” Schafer says. The raw mapping data are the basic ingredients. MapQuest and its competitors may use the same ingredients but in different ratios.

In the case of my recent Maryland trip, the recipe left a bad taste in my mouth.

When I returned home, I plugged in the end points of my route and asked for driving directions on MapQuest, Yahoo Maps and MSN Maps & Directions.

I also asked all three sites for driving directions from my parents’ address in a semi-rural area near Fillmore to Long Beach. (“Urban and metropolitan areas are given more attention by data providers than rural areas,” Schafer says.)

The programs do not take into account rush hour, your driving preferences and other factors, and each program’s performance may vary depending on where you’re traveling. But by looking at the number of turns, miles and time that each set of directions required in the two test trips, I could see subtle differences:

* MapQuest: This program took me on a straightforward route through Maryland, but for the Fillmore trip it sent me marching over the hills on narrow, windy California 23 rather than on four-lane California 126. I liked the graphics on the printed maps. For example, directions to turn onto Interstate 405 came with a red-and-blue interstate sign marked “South 405.” MapQuest was the winner in terms of the shortest distance traveled.

* Yahoo Maps: This was the service that suggested I scurry around the byways of Maryland; it also sent me marching over the hills of Fillmore. In an example of how quickly these sites are evolving, when I tried to generate those odd directions again for this story, I couldn’t. (A Yahoo spokesman said that the software had been refined in the three months since my original search.)

* MSN Maps & Directions: MSN was the only one of the three online map programs that advised taking quicker California 126 from Fillmore. It was also the only service that offered construction warnings and let me choose whether I wanted the shortest (least distance) or quickest (least time) route. The shortest Maryland route included a 3 1/2-mile jaunt down Black Dog Alley and added more than an hour to what could have been a two-hour, 18-minute trip.

Though this route logged the fewest miles, it required 59 turns and other directions. The quickest MSN route required traveling more miles, but it had only 15 turns and favored time-saving major highways. In the end, MSN was my winner in the fewest turns and least time traveled categories.

The overall winner: MSN Maps & Directions. A close second: MapQuest.

All the websites will usually get you there. They perform a remarkable, though not perfect, service for free.

In the future, Schafer says, here’s the question mapping programs will try to address: “Is this the best route for this person at this time?”

If and when online mappers figure that out, asking for directions at a gas station may truly be a thing of the past.

Jane Engle is on assignment. Questions and comments on Travel Insider can be sent to travel@latimes.com or mailed to Travel Insider, Los Angeles Times, 202 W. First St., Los Angeles 90012. James Gilden can be reached at www .theinternettraveler.com.