Google launched a beta version of their upcoming mapping service this morning. It’s positioned to be a competitor to services like MapQuest, but I don’t think there will be much of a competition. It’s freaking awsome.

I have a meeting this morning out in Hartland. I looked up the address last night on Mapquest, and it couldn’t find the specific building I’m looking for. I was able to find the general area, but Google picked it up exactly. Not only that, the maps are drawn much cleaner - less chartjunk. I think the killer feature is speed - my result came up in a blink. There’s also functionality for most browsers that allows you to use the arrow keys to navigate the map, or you can simply click and drag the map around. No reload (and wait), just scroll around. And finally, the printable page option was very nice - must make use of media-specific CSS rules; again, no reload, just hit the “Print” link.

I’m giddy.