I recently had to drive from the Atlanta, Georgia to Cleveland, Ohio. I knew the general route I would take, but just wanted to check with one or two of the major direction web sites.

I submitted the same start and end points into the three major direction sites: MapQuest, Yahoo Maps and Expedia. Each provided directions that had their own unique pros and cons.

We're all aware of the issues that many of the directions sites face. There is no human interaction on the back-end, it's strictly database driven, so some of the little things that would be obvious to any person are sometimes overlooked. At one point or another we've had the: Take left, take left, take left sequence, why didn't we just take a right?

MapQuest

MapQuest provided the simplest of the directions (Screenshot). At initial glance this confirms the route I knew I needed to take, I-75 North for quite a ways then take I-71. Major turns are presented in all caps (LEFT/RIGHT) but strangely 'Merge' is not, even though the 'merges' onto the interstates are rather important. This highlighting of the turns is similar to Expedia, yet not as good as Yahoo Maps.

After looking at the other sites, I realized that the route was not as simple as MapQuest showed.

Yahoo Maps

Yahoo's directions are obviously a bit more complex (Screenshot) than MapQuest's. As I mentioned Yahoo places large circles with an 'L' or 'R' for the turns that are important. Quickly glancing at this page I note that there are numerous road name changes, the major turns are highlighted.

The additional complexity that Yahoo seems to add deals specifically with the interstates around major cities. When you approach Chattanooga, TN I-75 merges with I-40 and then you must exit onto I-640 to eventually get to I-75. Each of these major city areas is quite confusing on the road. By reading the MapQuest route you would expect that I-75 would be a straight shot thru the city, you'd be wrong. The confusion is compounded by any construction that may be along the route.

Expedia

Expedia was similar to the directions (Screenshot) provided Yahoo. Expedia does not provide the large turn icons like Yahoo, but does highlight the major turns in all caps.

To help with the confusion around the major cities, Expedia does provide comments such as "Road name changes to I-71 (I-75)". In addition Expedia provides construction information along the route. In my trip Expedia was correct with the four items listed, but it did miss some major work in the Chattanooga area.

Another interesting feature Expedia provides is the 'Entering State XX' line.

Overall Thoughts

It seems the best solution would be a combination the positive features of all the sites. Perhaps a high-level listing like MapQuest, with breakdowns per road segment. Large turn indicators such as Yahoo and construction information like Expedia.

What they are all missing is the 'local resource' factor. What I mean by this is if you were to ask any local resident for directions in navigating their interstate beltway system they would give you the hidden tib-bits such as, "as soon as you merge onto I-640 get in the left lane since the exit to I-75 is on the left."