Ask.com back from the dead with AskCity

In the first of a series, I'm going to post about the maps I use the most and let you know the good and the bad about the map systems out there.

First up, Ask City!

I haven't used ask.com in about a billion years, so it took a posting on TechCrunch to get me to pay attention to their new mapping utility, Ask City.

Here's the good:

Being late to the game has its advantages. You can rip off ideas from your competitors and then make it better. What's neat about Ask City?

1. You can draw on the map and send it to friends. This opens up a whole new brand of social networking around a map. If you're trying to figure out where to go on Friday, everyone can pin their fav restaurant on the map. You can write your opinions about it and vote, all on the map.

2. Search for business near a location. Google has it, but Ask City lets me search it from the little pop up balloon.

3. Search events. Google lets you search events, but you have to do it through Google Calendar. This puts it all in one app and it looks pretty thorough. After you choose your event, you can use "search nearby" to find a restaurant to eat at before and a bar to hang out in afterward.

4. Find movies. You can find movies on Google, but I think I'm the only person I know who knows how to do it (type movie: your zip like movie: 77449 in the search box).

5. Pin your results. You can pin a result down, then run a new search so that you can see where the stuff you pinned is in relation to something else you're looking for.

You can also send info to your phone, e-mail the map to your friends, and save snapshots of the maps you've created.

In the next post, the bad.