Free map online?

[allniter89]

Which free online map website do you think is best (accuracy, ease of use, zoom in option)?
I'm only going to use it for directions from point A to point B, usually locally, occasionally  nationwide.
I'm hoping  someone will recommend one based on personal experience.

[Alps]

Google Maps does well for routing, though not so well for travel time. Also, use the Satellite and/or Street view to confirm streets you're not sure about - if it's twisty and in the backwoods, there's a chance it's not actually a street.

Open Street Maps is the most accurate, but it's not my favorite interface.

[empirestate]

Open Street Maps is the most accurate, but it's not my favorite interface.

Not everywhere...I've been rebuilding my neighborhood block-by-block because it's so littered with incorrect TIGER line segment. But I'll agree that OSM, when and where attention has been paid by humans, is usually the most accurate. For across the board accuracy, though, I usually gravitate back to MapQuest.

[Alps]

when and where attention has been paid by humans

+1

[Chris]

Open Street Map tend to be the most up-to-date but the mapping is beyond awful. Google Maps is much better in terms of mapping and route adjustment, but one thing it lacks are tolls. Viamichelin also shows the amount of tolls you have to pay if you plan a route in Europe. Viamichelin looks great on paper maps, but not so much on a computer screen, especially if you zoom in or out.

[Roadsguy]

OpenStreetMap is my favorite in terms of accuracy and flexibility. (I see an error and I fix it.) Google is my favorite in terms of interface, though it needs a separate "express"way line color, as well as one for toll roads.

Bing just lags more, dragging/zooming is weird, almost always slightly blurry satellite view, and (for me) the map blurs up for a second if I drag it even slightly. However, in some places, such as the middle of PA, it has newer satellite view than Google.

I've never used Yahoo's map or Mapquest, and will never ever touch Wikimapia again.

[empirestate]

The OSM/MapQuest collaboration could lead to interesting places. The mobile version of MapQuest already has some of the OSM data interpolated into it, but it's combined with other data sources so that where OSM is lacking, MapQuest's own efforts or other data providers pick up the slack.

Now if only they would a) figure out how to render grade separations, and b) become competitive again in the Road Atlas world, we'd be getting somewhere.

[bugo]

None of them.  None of the online mapping programs cartography is on the level of a Rand McNally printed map.  And a lot of the data is out of date or just plain wrong.  One day there will be an online map site with beautiful cartography, but it hasn't gotten here yet.

[Scott5114]

OSM would be better if they would tweak their legend to match the American road system some more. Currently the legend heavily draws off the British mapping standards. That's all well and good, but for US mapping they should 1) implement true shields and 2) iron out exactly what constitutes a "primary road", "secondary road", etc. in the US. Oklahoma City and Norman are tagged entirely differently despite being in the same metro area because the OSM guy in OKC and the one in Norman have different ideas of what constitutes a secondary road.

[english si]

Even in Britain, we've had trouble with some people going by classification (which matches all other mapping, except the awful new Google, and is the documented OSM standard for the UK), and others going by quality and some by importance.

And we also have the confusion that it's non-primary A roads that get marked 'primary' - not quite as British as you'd have thought.

wrt Bugo's point about cartography, I'll echo Chris' points about viaMichelin - for most of Europe they use their paper map cartography online and it doesn't translate well, despite being rather good cartography. Same applies to OS in Britain, and OSI/OSNI in Ireland.

[allniter89]

Which free online map website do you think is best (accuracy, ease of use, zoom in option)?
I'm only going to use it for directions from point A to point B, usually locally, occasionally  nationwide.
I'm hoping  someone will recommend one based on personal experience.

Thanks for your opinions everyone.