Where do you look when you need to see a good map of des moines or the metro?  If you’re like me, you probably start with Google, Mapquest, MSN or Yahoo.  I’ve used all of these before, and since they keep changing in terms of functionality, features, and how detailed the views are - I decided to take another look.

Google Maps: When I got to Google Maps, I searched for Des Moines, Iowa and up came a very nice overview of the metro.  I clicked on Satellite to get a view from above, and then on Hybrid to see the Map view overlaid on top of the Satellite view.  By double clicking anywhere on the map, you can zoom into to see more detail.  You can also click/hold with your left mouse button to drag the map view in any direction.  Very nice and lots of fun features.

Yahoo Maps:  The first thing I noticed on Yahoo Maps was a lot more color, ads, and points of interest.  It almost seemed a bit busy compared to Yahoo…and it had a lot of the same functionality in terms of being able to see a satellite and hybrid view.  Double clicking zoomed in and I could grab and drag the map in any direction.  One feature I notice was labelled as “Live Traffic”.  I tried clicking on a I80 and I235, but in both cases the live traffic report was unavailable.  This feature shows Incidents and Speed, but since it’s not working right now…I’ll need to check back.

Mapquest: I entered Des Moines in city and IA in state, and Mapquest displayed a nearly full-screen size map that included a wide view of the metro, extending all the way to Newton, Indianola, Dexter, and Huxley.  This default view is called “aerial view”.  I wasn’t able to zoom by double clicking, but I could grab and drag the map in all directions to see other areas.  I zoomed in as far as I could (using a zoom tool) and after each zoom level I tried switching to “Street Map” view.  Unfortunately, this did not work…so maybe it’s not available on a map of Des Moines, or possibly it’s a service that will roll out in the future.  No satellite or hybrid views on this site, so I prefer Google and Yahoo for that reason.

MSN / Live: What used to be MSN Maps is now on Live Search at maps.live.com.   I searched for Des Moines, IA and closed the ad screen on the left to see a full screen view of a map centered on Des Moines.  Double clicking on the map zoomed me in quite a bit and like the others, I was able to scroll in all directions by grabbing and dragging.  Some interesting features included a 2D and 3D navigation panel with Road, Aerial, and Hybrid views.  There is a map view and bird’s eye view feature as well, although I couldn’t get the later to do anything on the Des Moines map.  Overall, there looks to be a great deal of funtionality on this map site, but much isn’t working here just yet.

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