Review by J. Nelson

Before there was google maps, there was streets and trips, and I remember it fondly for helping me plan interstate drives without haggling with paper maps. Now, however, we’re all spoiled by nearly-instantaneous online access to frequently-updated mapping data, and take a dim view of maps that show entire neighborhoods and shopping centers, which we know from personal experience to exist, being illustrated as bare dirt with no roads. While MapPoint provides some level of integration with other office programs for displaying tabular data more graphically (how many people really need this feature? and couldn’t replicate it in Google Earth Pro?), it takes a huge hit in utility when you realize you have to PAY for map updates (information which is free from other online services, including Microsoft’s Bing maps). While we may have all been conditioned to pay for this information in our automotive GPS systems (here’s looking at you, Toyota, and your $300 annual GPS DVD upgrade), it’s unconscionable from a company that maintains a free online mapping tool ([…]).