SUBSCRIBE
SUBSCRIBE
EXPLORE +
  • About infoDOCKET
  • Academic Libraries on LJ
  • Research on LJ
  • News on LJ
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Libraries
    • Academic Libraries
    • Government Libraries
    • National Libraries
    • Public Libraries
  • Companies (Publishers/Vendors)
    • EBSCO
    • Elsevier
    • Ex Libris
    • Frontiers
    • Gale
    • PLOS
    • Scholastic
  • New Resources
    • Dashboards
    • Data Files
    • Digital Collections
    • Digital Preservation
    • Interactive Tools
    • Maps
    • Other
    • Podcasts
    • Productivity
  • New Research
    • Conference Presentations
    • Journal Articles
    • Lecture
    • New Issue
    • Reports
  • Topics
    • Archives & Special Collections
    • Associations & Organizations
    • Awards
    • Funding
    • Interviews
    • Jobs
    • Management & Leadership
    • News
    • Patrons & Users
    • Preservation
    • Profiles
    • Publishing
    • Roundup
    • Scholarly Communications
      • Open Access

October 13, 2011 by Gary Price

Local Information: "Introducing MapQuest Vibe, a New Way to Explore" (Beta)

October 13, 2011 by Gary Price

Here’s a new betal release you might want to take a look at. Online today. One thing we like (for reference purposes) is how neighborhoods are outlined on maps. Of course boundaries can be vary by who you ask but it’s a start especially if you’re researching an area you’re unfamiliar with.
From the MapQuest Blog:

Today, we’re launching MapQuest Vibe, which is your shortcut to becoming a local, anywhere. This early beta cuts through the clutter of ratings, lists and pins on a map, by giving you actual rankings of places based on key criteria within a local neighborhood context.
MapQuest Vibe gives you the local knowledge of not just the best restaurant in Denver, but also the best Italian restaurant in the LoDo neighborhood in Denver.
The “local knowledge” is generated with a new patented algorithm called VibeRank. This blended social-algorithmic formula takes several implicit signals (like searches on MapQuest and cartographic data), creates a baseline ranking and then layers on explicit social signals from the new Vibe pages.
Based on this algorithm, MapQuest Vibe profiles more than 50,000 neighborhoods, 27,000 cities and 50,000 hotspots in the U.S., reaching 98 percent of the population.
The neighborhood pages let you explore everything a neighborhood has to offer, including restaurants, attractions and services, all ranked in a clear order. Neighborhoods are scored according to attributes like popularity, walkability, and edginess, and the aggregate quality of the places in that neighborhood. These rankings and scores are influenced when you vote up places you like and vote down those you don’t.
[Clip]
A common problem for mapping and local search products is that the ground-truth is hard to keep up with. When you’re dealing with tens of millions of places, it can take a while for new businesses to be added, closed businesses to be removed or to get everything categorized accurately.
mqVibe approaches this in two ways: First is the traditional way of trying to use the best data providers and allowing businesses to contact us directly to keep their data up to date; the second way is through the social feedback loop inherent in the system. The more people who vote and comment, the more accurate the underlying data. And, in the next few months, we’ll have better tools to let users help us fix this on the fly.
Over time, you’ll see VibeRank applied to more and more things on MapQuest. Whether it’s applied to highway exits, fuel-efficient routes, national parks or even used as a reputation indicator on user profiles, you can expect to see clear and simple ranks and scores to help you make a decision.

It will be interesting to watch and see if the algorithm can withstand spammers and others who want to manipulate rankings and other info.
Direct to MapQuest Vibe (Beta)
Note: iPhone app coming soon.
Direct to MapQuest Vibe Introductory Video

Filed under: Data Files, Maps, Patrons and Users, Profiles

SHARE:

MapQuestMapQuest VibeMaps and Geographic Info Tools

About Gary Price

Gary Price (gprice@mediasourceinc.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. Before launching INFOdocket, Price and Shirl Kennedy were the founders and senior editors at ResourceShelf and DocuTicker for 10 years. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com, and is currently a contributing editor at Search Engine Land.

ADVERTISEMENT

Archives

Job Zone

ADVERTISEMENT

Recent Articles on LJ

After the MLIS

Proud Boys Disrupt Drag Queen Story Time at San Lorenzo Library

From the Top: Library Leaders Talk EDI | Equity

There Are No Lanes: Rural Libraries Do It ALL | Backtalk

Certified Sustainable | Sustainability

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Infodocket Posts

Not Real News: An Associated Press Roundup of Untrue Stories Shared Widely on Social Media This Week

From the Associated Press: A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were ...

Statement: American Library Association (ALA) Condemns Threats of Violence in Libraries

Full Text of ALA Statement (6/24): In response to the alarming increase in acts of aggression toward library workers and patrons as reported by press across the country, the American ...

Roundup (June 24, 2022)

FCC and IMLS Sign Agreement to Promote Broadband Access More Than Fifty Libraries and Library Systems Live on EBSCO FOLIO Library Services Platform NIST Releases New Guidance and Resources on ...

Report: "Vatican Releases Thousands of Holocaust-Era Letters and Requests Online"

From the Associated Press (via Times of Israel): Pope Francis orders the online publication of 170 volumes of its Jewish files from the recently opened Pope Pius XII archives, the ...

The New York Public Library Opens a ‘Virtual Branch’ on Instagram and Launches a Reading Recommendation Project Using...

From NYPL: The virtual branch— a custom designed interactive AR (Augmented Reality) Effect accessible via Instagram Reels is the centerpiece of #NYPLSummerBookshelf, a new initiative to spark a love of ...

Roundup (June 23, 2022)

CLIR Invites Proposals for Pocket Burgundy Series (via Council on Library and Information Resources) Oregon’s State Library added to National Register of Historic Places (via Oregon Capital Chronicle)

State of New York Releases First-Of-Its Kind Statewide Address-Level Broadband Map

From GCN: An address-level, interactive broadband map will help officials in New York explore statewide high-speed internet availability, assess connectivity needs and better allocate state and federal funding. The map ...

Journal Article: "Rarely Analyzed: The Relationship Between Digital and Physical Rare Books Collections"

The article linked below was recently published by Information Technology and Libraries. Title Rarely Analyzed: The Relationship Between Digital and Physical Rare Books Collections Authors Allison McCormack University of Utah ...

Mellon Foundation Awards $600,000 to Digital Preservation Outreach and Education Network

From The Pratt Institute: The Mellon Foundation has awarded the Pratt Institute School of Information $600,000 to support the Digital Preservation Outreach and Education Network (DPOE-N) in collaboration with the ...

DPLA Receives $150,000 Grant From the Knight Foundation to Expand the Palace Marketplace and Palace Bookshelf

From a DPLA Announcement: DPLA’s ebook work is a key part of our mission to advance digital access to knowledge for all. Earlier this month, The Palace Project app and platform ...

Charles Watkinson Takes Office as AUPresses President

From an AUPresses Announcement: Charles Watkinson, director of the University of Michigan Press, has stepped into the presidency of the Association of University Presses. Watkinson, who also serves as associate ...

New Report From Library of Congress OIG: "The Library’s Anti-Harassment Policy Has Many Strengths, Although Steps Are Needed...

From the Report Summary: The United States Senate Committee on Rules and Administration asked us to review the handling of sexual harassment cases at the Library. The audit’s objectives were ...

ADVERTISEMENT

FOLLOW INFODOCKET ON TWITTER

Tweets by @infodocket

ADVERTISEMENT

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

Primary Sidebar

  • News
  • Reviews+
  • Technology
  • Programs+
  • Design
  • Leadership
  • People
  • COVID-19
  • Advocacy
  • Opinion
  • INFOdocket
  • Job Zone

Reviews+

  • Booklists
  • Prepub Alert
  • Book Pulse
  • Media
  • Readers' Advisory
  • Self-Published Books
  • Review Submissions
  • Review for LJ

Awards

  • Library of the Year
  • Librarian of the Year
  • Movers & Shakers 2022
  • Paralibrarian of the Year
  • Best Small Library
  • Marketer of the Year
  • All Awards Guidelines
  • Community Impact Prize

Resources

  • LJ Index/Star Libraries
  • Research
  • White Papers / Case Studies

Events & PD

  • Online Courses
  • In-Person Events
  • Virtual Events
  • Webcasts
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
  • Media Inquiries
  • Newsletter Sign Up
  • Submit Features/News
  • Data Privacy
  • Terms of Use
  • Terms of Sale
  • FAQs
  • Careers at MSI


© 2022 Library Journal. All rights reserved.


© 2022 Library Journal. All rights reserved.