My Yahoo! Blog

Get there fast, and find lunch!

We recently fine-tuned the Yahoo! Local & Maps module to make it a super-convenient jumping off point for getting maps and local business listings. Here’s the nickel tour…

Finding places is easier with the Search Local tab.
The module’s “Search Local” tab gives you a quick way to look up businesses near an address. So you’re in the mood for pizza in San Francisco huh? Well just type a description of what you’re looking for in the “Search for:” box, input the address, and click “Search Local”. You’ll be taken over to Yahoo! Local, which is like the yellow pages on steroids. It had user reviews, a built-in map, and other helpful features.

But wait, how do I get there?
In the module’s “Driving Directions” tab, you can input the origin and destination addresses. Click “Get Map”, and you’ll be whisked off to Yahoo! Maps with your route already plugged in. Tip: If you omit the destination address, you’ll get a map centered on the origin address.

But wait there’s more!
Now, here’s the special ingredient that makes both of these features not just convenient, but super-convenient: if you click on the triangle next to an address field, you get a listing of locations you recently used on Yahoo!, saving you the trouble of looking up addresses over and over again. You can also save frequently-used addresses and give them convenient names like “Home”, “School”, “Work”, etc.

Add the Yahoo! Local & Maps module now!

We hope this module helps you get around your world a little bit easier.

–james

My Yahoo! Product Manager

PS…While you’re on Yahoo! Maps, be sure to check out their coolest new feature: drag & drop re-routing. If you don’t like the route that comes up, you can click on a part of it and drag it to another road. A new route will be automatically calculated and compared with the original route. This is really handy when you know there are problems on a particular road and you want to avoid it.

Know your neighborhood.

Following up on my previous post…

Once you’ve moved to a new place you can also use My Yahoo! to keep track of what’s going on in your new neighborhood. The San Francisco page and Yahoo! Local module are a good start.

The Food (first things first)
Yelp! has a great online community of foodies who eat out and share their experiences. You can add a module with all restaurant reviews for your neighborhood. First head to Yelp! Locations and click on the city nearest you.

If you’re running Firefox 2.0 or Internet Explorer 7, you can just click on the RSS icon and follow the prompts to add the feed to My Yahoo!. Now you have a feed of the latest restaurant reviews for your city.

Music and More
Upcoming is a wonderful place to find concerts and other events. And you can easily add a listing of events tailored to your city. To do this:

1. Head to Upcoming and enter your location in the “Where” box
2. Click on “All Events”
3. Click on “Subscribe” and “Add to My Yahoo!”
…and you’re done.

Events and Such
Finally, outside.in is a great site that combines neighborhood news, event listings, and more into a single page. They even publish an RSS feed for every zip code. To add their feed to your My Yahoo! page:

1. From My Yahoo!, click “Personalize this Page”
2. Click “Add RSS Feed” and enter in http://outside.in/rss.php?region=98101; replacing 98101 with your zip code

Hope some of my local favorites modules inspire you. And if you have some great neighborhood modules of your own, I’d love to hear about them in the comments.

Enjoy!

-Joseph, My Yahoo! Product Manager

Location, location, location…

If you like finding new restaurants and things to do in your area, try adding the Local module to your page. It’s one of our coolest modules, yet surprisingly few of our users know about it. It puts the following at your fingertips:

- an interactive map of your area
- a guide to local restaurants, events, and favorites
- driving directions
- a local search box for finding all the other cool stuff near you

This module is packed with functionality and is meant to take care of all your local needs. Since it’s relatively new, we know we can make it even better. Over the next few months, I’ll be working to improve it, so tell me: What do you like or dislike about it? How would you make it better?

Take Local for a spin and tell me what you think.

Happy exploring,

Michael
My Yahoo! Product Manager