Web Mapping Platforms and Their Data Sources

Web-based mapping predates the smartphone era by more than a decade. Early experiments such as the Xerox PARC Map Viewer (1993) demonstrated that a browser could render interactive maps, but it was MapQuest, launched in 1996, that turned the idea into a mass-market consumer service: users could type in two addresses and receive turn-by-turn driving directions, built on top of proprietary street data licensed from Geographic Data Technology (GDT). By the early 2000s MapQuest.com was consistently ranked among the most visited sites on the web, and its point-to-point directions model became the template every later platform would refine.