Yahoo! Maps comes out of Beta

Mike Lawless, Product Manager in the Yahoo! Maps Team, posted a message on his blog saying that "the new Yahoo! Maps gives our users a more expedient method of finding locations and getting driving directions, and is an even more powerful tool within Yahoo! Local."

"In addition to releasing the new Yahoo! Maps, we're also rolling out street-level maps for Europe and many cities of new satellite imagery. These are available almost anywhere Yahoo! Maps can be found, whether on Flickr in their photo mapping feature, Yahoo! Travel's Trip Planner product, and of course to our external developer community using Yahoo! Maps APIs. Getting more maps and imagery outside the US is a feature enhancement that has been in high demand," he also mentioned.

The Yahoo! employee also mentioned the new features of the service:
- The award winning, most interactive, easy to use interface for the new generation of mapping.
- Multi-point routing, (from A to B to C), which is a great way to plan your day, do your errands, visit garage sales or hunt for a house.
- A new mini-map which gives you an overview of what you're looking at.
- Satellite and Aerial imagery, wall to wall in the USA, and for over 100 cities internationally.
- Full integration with Yahoo! Local, including search and SmartView.
- Saved locations and auto-complete against your saved locations, recent locations and Yahoo! Address Book.
- The ability to return to the old-style Yahoo! Maps for when you're on a Dial-Up connection.
- Quick access to maps from within Yahoo! Mail using Yahoo! Shortcuts.

Yahoo! Maps is a service that was meant to be a powerful rival of Google Earth, a Google product that attracted a lot of fans.