Special Announcement
Poll
How has your usage of Google Maps changed since Google changed its data source from a well-known vendor to itself?
I use it the same way as before.
I use it about the same, but now I report errors.
I use it less. 
I use it more.
Google Maps has a new data provider?
Webinar SignUp
Click below to sign-up for our latest Webinar

January 01
2010 Directions Media Webinars coming soon!
Directions Magazine, Web-based Mapping, Business GIS, GeoSpatial Consulting, Location Based Services
White Paper Downloads
Get the latest white papers from our sponsors
Directions Magazine, Web-based Mapping, Business GIS, GeoSpatial Consulting, Location Based Services
Authors
Hal Reid
Company Senior Technical Editor, Directions Magazine
Email halreid@cox.net
Hal Reid is the senior technical editor for Directions Magazine and a private consultant. He was one of the earliest practitioners of mapping analysis in the retail franchise field and holds the designation of Master of Corporate Real Estate (MCR) from CoreNet Global. He also holds a Master of Business Administration from Thunderbird, The American Graduate School of International Management.

Columns
More than just Wired Jun 28, 1999
Is it a point or an edge? Mar 08, 1999
Hassled by Cross-Format Incompatibility? Try an OCX Dec 15, 1998
The Right "Stuff" Nov 19, 1998
Hmmm… Nov 02, 1998

Articles
Product Overview: Matrox TripleHead2Go Oct 30, 2009
Product Review: BusinessMAP, ver. 5.0 Mar 04, 2009
Santa Hal's 2008 Geo Gift List Dec 19, 2008
GIS in Your Mouth – Dentistry Way Beyond Painless Sep 26, 2008
Product Review: Pharos Drive GPS 250 Dec 20, 2007
Product Review: TomTom GO 720 Sep 25, 2007
Product Review: BusinessMAP, ver. 4.5 Sep 14, 2007
TomTom Community Event Jul 25, 2007
Conference Report: ESRI Business GeoInfo Summit May 03, 2007
Santa Hal's Cool Stuff for Holiday Giving - 2006 Edition Dec 21, 2006
Product Overview: GeoIQ - Making Your Maps Smarter and Better Looking Too Dec 19, 2006
Seeing it Work, the Right Combination for Knowing Dec 13, 2006
Product Overview: ZEBRA Imaging Dec 13, 2006
Santa Hal Knows You Still Believe in Santa Claus Dec 13, 2006
Heavy Duty Workstations Seen at GEOINT Dec 06, 2006
GEOINT 2006 - WOW Technologies Nov 30, 2006
Product Overview: Demographic Audit and Location Rating Tool by GeoLabour Nov 15, 2006
More Business Geographics on a Budget – The EASI Demographics Website Nov 15, 2006
Image Search Technology: Mimicking Human Sight to Mine Image Content Nov 08, 2006
New Product: NAVTEQ Parcel Boundaries Nov 08, 2006
Editorial: Becoming New Again Nov 01, 2006
Some Information about North Korea Oct 19, 2006
Business Geographics on a Budget - A Look At DataPlace Oct 18, 2006
Government Workers, a Vanishing Breed – The Demographics of Change Oct 11, 2006
Right or Left at Oak Street - Using Data for Departure Oct 11, 2006
Directions' Secret Amateur Spy Detects Espionage Usage Oct 11, 2006
Secret Amateur Spy Series Oct 04, 2006
Product Review: BusinessMAP Financial Oct 04, 2006
The Missing Department Revisited Sep 20, 2006
Secret Amateur Spy! Sep 20, 2006
Barnes Bank Expands Business in Utah Sep 20, 2006
Proxix Parcel Level Geocoder Sep 13, 2006
Destinator - Personal Navigation With a Flair Sep 13, 2006
George, the AI Robot Sep 12, 2006
VTBook Laptop Multiple Display Video Card Sep 06, 2006
Podcast: Google Maps for Mobile Beta Aug 29, 2006
A Discussion with Holly Ross, Vice President, Sales, Applied Spatial Technology Aug 23, 2006
A Discussion with Robert Welch, President, Synergos Technologies Aug 23, 2006
War Games, Data Gathering, Application and Learning Aug 15, 2006
Turning The Big One Point 0 Aug 02, 2006
Location Intelligence on Fuel – Knowing Where Not to Buy Gas Jul 21, 2006
Evaluating Risk in World Markets Jul 19, 2006
Century 21 Property Search Gold – Mapping Tool Jul 18, 2006
Fun in the Sun, Snow, Water, Mountains, Desert, Woods or Almost Anywhere Else Jul 14, 2006
Ball State's Office of Wireless Research and Mapping Jul 11, 2006
Dashups from SRC Jun 28, 2006
Product Overview: WebQL - Searching the Web, Acquiring Insight Jun 28, 2006
A newVue of geoVue Jun 26, 2006
Applying Oracle Spatial to a Very Large Insurance Problem Jun 20, 2006
Searching Searching, the Changing Nature of the Database Jun 14, 2006
Product Overview – Impress for GIS Jun 13, 2006
BE Conference – May 21-25, 2006, Charlotte, NC Jun 02, 2006
SRC Announces Integration of Key Business Intelligence Factors in Retail Analysis May 25, 2006
Company Overview: MapAsia.com May 22, 2006
Telmap Product Overview May 07, 2006
Conference Report: 2006 SCIP International May 02, 2006
Product Overview: G2 Microsystems System-on-Chip, G2C501, a Wi-Fi, RFID Active Tag May 01, 2006
Product Overview: ClearFlite Apr 25, 2006
A Few Cool Technologies from the Location Intelligence Conference Apr 20, 2006
Katrina Demographics – A Claritas Assessment of Change Apr 18, 2006
A Discussion with Scott Petronis, Envinsa Product Manager, MapInfo Apr 12, 2006
Ekahau Product Overview Apr 08, 2006
Report Review: NOAA’s Satellite and Information Service Survey and Analysis of Remote Sensing Market Aerial and Spaceborne Mar 29, 2006
Interview with Tom Marsden, D&B Government Solutions Mar 15, 2006
EASI Life Stage Clusters - A New Neighborhood Social Stratification System Mar 07, 2006
The Missing Department Feb 14, 2006
Overview: ArcWeb Explorer - Beta Feb 13, 2006
A New View of Data Feb 08, 2006
Data With a Warming Trend - Winter Isn’t Everywhere Feb 07, 2006
The Missing Piece Feb 01, 2006
Product Overview - @Road Jan 23, 2006
A Wider Look at Data Jan 19, 2006
Center for Geospatial Intelligence: On the Leading Edge Jan 18, 2006
Real-time Data Streams Jan 10, 2006
More LI, More Possibilities Jan 04, 2006
The New Nature of Data Dec 27, 2005
Product Overview - Z Corporation 3D Printers Nov 30, 2005
GIS Across America Nov 30, 2005
Perspective on GeoINT 2005 Nov 16, 2005
Wow Technologies at GEOINT2005 Nov 13, 2005
Understanding Who We Are Fighting: James Woolsey's GEOINT Keynote Nov 10, 2005
A Dialog with Jay Clark, Tele Atlas Nov 01, 2005
Product Review - RouteMAP IMS 3.0 Oct 26, 2005
Distributing Maps via TerraGO Oct 26, 2005
Geocoding, Data Quality and ETL Oct 26, 2005
DecisionSite™ by Spotfire, Seeing is Believing Sep 28, 2005
Hard Science, Crystal Balls and Educated Guesses - The Art of Predictive Analysis Sep 28, 2005
The Challenges of Location Intelligence Sep 07, 2005
MapInfo's New Acquisition, MarkeTech Jun 19, 2005
Getting the Where There Jun 06, 2005
Telematics Detroit 2005 May 22, 2005
Extending the Power to Know - Update on the SAS and ESRI Integration Apr 23, 2005
ESRI Business GeoInfo Summit Apr 21, 2005
An Update from MPSI Mar 26, 2005
Starlight Overview and Interview with Battelle's Brian Kritzstein Mar 08, 2005
Fun with EASI Comparisons Mar 07, 2005
A Number of Colors Mar 04, 2005
An Overview of Laser-Scan's Radius Topology 2.5 Feb 12, 2005
Microsoft MapPoint Fleet Edition Jan 30, 2005
Tsunami Support from MapAction - GIS to the Far Reaches of the World Jan 19, 2005
Executive Interview with Amar Hanspal, Vice President, Autodesk Collaboration Services Jan 10, 2005
Santa Hal's Christmas List Dec 18, 2004
Autodesk University 2004: Las Vegas Valley Water District Dec 11, 2004
Autodesk University 2004: WOW! Technology Dec 10, 2004
A Look at the Leading Edge in Geospatial Information Gathering Dec 07, 2004
Autodesk University 2004: Strategic Trends Dec 02, 2004
NGA Head General James R.Clapper Answers Wide-ranging Questions about NGA Nov 10, 2004
Executive Interview with Dr.Matt Tate, Vice President, Geospatial Solutions Federal, Intergraph Mapping and Geospatial Solutions Oct 30, 2004
GEOINT 2004: Leveraging Technology in a new Era of Cooperation within the Intelligence Community Oct 26, 2004
Location-based Services - We're Getting Closer: Lesson's Learned from ESRI's LBS Summit Aug 27, 2004
ArcGIS 9 and the Geodatabase Aug 18, 2004
Product Overview - ArcGIS 9 Aug 18, 2004
Three Blind Men and the Elephant - Can we see the big "picture" of Business Geographics Jun 02, 2004
Leading With Change - SRC User's Conference Report Apr 28, 2004
Business Geographics: Dead or Merely Evolving? Apr 23, 2004
Competitive Intelligence and Location Technology Apr 15, 2004
Product Review: BusinessMAP, Travel Edition 2.0 Feb 20, 2004
CAD, GIS Integration: Why Would You Want to Do This Anyway? Dec 26, 2003
Impressions of Autodesk University Dec 17, 2003
Expanding the View: What You Really Need are Three 17-inch Monitors for True GIS Visualization Dec 10, 2003
Bass Delivers Autodesk University Keynote Dec 10, 2003
Project Lifecycle Management: A commentary. Dec 10, 2003
Temporal GIS - at Last Dec 10, 2003
Business Geography and Human Conditions Nov 26, 2003
The Power of Place - Corporate Real Estate 2010 Oct 29, 2003
The CoreNet Global Summit - Atlanta Oct 19, 2003
Special Report: URISA's 5th Annual GIS in Addressing Conference - Street Smart and Address Savvy Aug 22, 2003
Fast Computers: Cool or Merely "Chromed?" Feb 19, 2003
"Dynamicization" - Organizations that survive in a Mobile Society Dec 16, 2002
Simple Stuff 10 - Evolving to a PDA Oct 08, 2002
Moving into the 21st Century with Business Geographics Aug 06, 2002
Maps on your PDA - Simple Stuff #8 - Mapping the Trade Show Floor May 07, 2002
Maps on your PDA: Simple Stuff #7 - Simple Access to Demographics on the Web Apr 16, 2002
Maps on your PDA: Simple Stuff #6 - A Handful of Demographics in Real Time Mar 26, 2002
Maps on your PDA ...Simple Stuff #5 Mar 11, 2002
Simple Stuff 4 - A Franchise Territory on the IPAQ Feb 26, 2002
Simple Stuff 3 - A Franchise Territory - Almost Feb 13, 2002
Simple Stuff 2 - Franchise Territories on the Palm - Part 1 Feb 06, 2002
Simple Stuff - Putting Around with Palm Devices Jan 24, 2002

Features
Product Review: BusinessMap ver. 5.0 Mar 04, 2009
Product Overview: GeoIQ - Making Your Maps Smarter and Better Looking Too Dec 19, 2006
Product Overview – Free Plug-in for MS Outlook from CMC International Apr 19, 2006
Product Overview: Profi$ite – Online Sales Forecasting Apr 18, 2006
Product Overview - Ekahau Apr 06, 2006
Alteryx – A Visual Workflow Tool for Data Transformation Mar 14, 2006
Product Review – Pharos Traveler GPS 525 Personal Navigation Device Mar 14, 2006
Product Overview: Laser-Scan's Radius Studio Feb 07, 2006
Product Overview: Matrox DualHead2Go Jan 31, 2006
RouteMAP IMS 3.0 Oct 23, 2005
BusinessMAP Version 4 May 21, 2005
Product Overview: TerraSeer Space Time Intelligence System Mar 31, 2005
Product Overview: NavPro – an Online Map Service From Maps.com Mar 24, 2005
Distributing Drawings and Maps to Users Without Software Feb 18, 2005
Product Overview: HP's New DesignJet 4000 Feb 18, 2005
Product Review: Anacubis Desktop Aug 07, 2004
Product Review – TatukGIS Viewer, version 1.1.1.166 Jun 04, 2004
BusinessMAP, ver. 3.5 Apr 21, 2004
Matrox Parhelia, 128MB Multiple Monitor Graphics Board Feb 06, 2004
Positive Disruption, Spreading Business Geographic Wealth Dec 16, 2003
One of the Early Business Geographers Jan 17, 2001
Advertisers