MapBlast

MapBlast! was a web mapping service launched in the mid 1990s by Vicinity Corporation. It allowed website owners to incorporate maps in their own web pages, and was later syndicated across most major Web, wireless, handheld and interactive TV platforms including Yahoo!, Excite, Lycos, ATT Interactive and Palm, among others.^[1] By 2000, MapBlast was the #2 mapping site on the Web in terms of traffic having undergone a major redesign that was praised by the Wall Street Journal, PC Week and other leading publications. The team responsible for this redesign was led by David Cherner, Tad Goltra, Jerry Halstead, Eric Gottesman, Chris Golier, Matti Katajamaki, Julian Yang, Joe Como, Jun Boo, Dana Liu, Garner Moss, Tim Anderson, Adam Reek and Garner Moss.

Vicinity Corporation was founded in August 1995 with headquarters on 599 North Mathilda Avenue, Sunnyvale, California. (37°23′30″N 122°01′50″W / 37.39167°N 122.03056°W / 37.39167; -122.03056) Rama Aysola, Eddie Babcock, Timothy Bacci, Jim DiSanto were mentioned as co-founders. Harold J. Logan joined as CEO in 1996, and the company moved to 1135A San Antonio Road, Palo Alto (37°25′55″N 122°06′03″W / 37.43194°N 122.10083°W / 37.43194; -122.10083), later with offices also in Berlin and Rome. By 1999, it had received funding from CMG@Ventures, Oak Investment Partners, 21st Century Internet, and the Encompass Group. At this point, the only founder that remained was Bacci. CEO and president at that time was Emerick Woods. The management team included Scott Young (CTO), Dave Seltzer (CFO), Dinesh Wadhawan (VP-Sales), Greg Beasley (VP-Business Development), Eric Winkler (VP-Marketing), David Cherner (VP-Syndication), Mary Gavin (VP-Engineering), Mike Torgerson (VP-IT), Scott Shuda (General Counsel) and Elaine Hamilton (VP-HR). This management team completed a successful initial public offering in February 2000 managed by J.P. Morgan & Co., Bear Stearns, and USB Piper Jaffray.

The company was acquired by Microsoft in 2002 and the MapBlast service was closed down in August that year. The technologies have later been incorporated into services such as MSN Maps & Directions, Microsoft MapPoint and Live Search Maps. Many of the localized search services now offered by Google and other leading companies were pioneered by Vicinity and MapBlast! in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

References

1. ^ The Internet Archive has preserved the front web pages of MapBlast.com in April 2000 and Vicinity.com in February 2000.