If you happened to be traveling in a land down under then Yahoo is absolutely no good and you will see why in just a minute. Maps and map mashups or the ability to combine various functions into a map has become one of the most used tools in the web 2.0 toolbox. The new map API’s from the search engines have given web developers a huge amount of scope to add really impressive features map features. They have also allowed an increase in the ability to promote a local business.

Yahoo have recently put a lot of effort into their map section. Danny Sullivan reports on the new feature yahoo have that allows the end user to mix their own maps in with the yahoo maps, which they have called mapmixer

But what about the land of Oz?

It seems that for yahoo there is no Aussie, Aussie, Aussie. The land downunder really is just that. It does not care about the Australian market or yahoo are too busy with the greater market place to even index Australian streets properly. Google maps on the other hand are much more impressive when it comes to displaying streets in even the smallest places in Australia like Hobart, Tasmania.

A Google map as seen from an internet browser in Australia was definitely the way to go. The hybrid and map features are great with lots of high end definition and detail. Yahoo maps did not even show Melbourne as city boundaries let alone the streets.

I did find that multimap did an OK job of indexing Australian streets. And their map browser functionality was quite good.

When promoting a local business online in Oz, if using a map is involved in any way then google is the preferred choice. It is clear that the Australian market have responded to the attention shown it as google holds at least 60% of the Australian search with yahoo way back in who knows what spot and for Australian they may not care unless yahoo shows a bit more care.