About a week and a half ago part of the MacArthur Maze in Oakland was destroyed. It left commuters with the difficulty of finding an alternate route or alternate transportation. I was watching a news report on the Tuesday following the accident on companies that online driving directions and how they compensated for the freeway on ramp closure. The reporter went to Google Maps and Mapquest to see if the sites were still giving routes that included the freeway that was shut down. He said that Google had already had alternate routes available. They even provided two choices for drivers: To pass the exit and take the following exit and turn around and enter the freeway from the other direction or take side streets to bypass the wreckage. Mapquest, on the other hand, did not provide new routes and the closed freeway was still on the driving directions. I found an article on a website, however, the details may be incorrect. http://www.siliconvalley.com/news/ci_5798672 A Mapquest spokesperson said that the changes would take effect Tuesday afternoon, but the late night version of the news still could not get the new directions from Mapquest on Tuesday night.
I thought this was a very smart business move done by Google. They had the routes changed on Monday, the day following the bridge collapse. Google was reported on the news to have acted very quickly and they probably gained some notoriety. People will probably switch to Google Maps instead of Mapquest when getting directions around the bay area. This could potentially hurt Mapquest because users may lose loyalty and Mapquest may lose money.
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