If you are one who laments the long and arduous process of tracking down points of interest using online technology, you aren’t alone. Ask.com unveiled it’s new AskCity feature yesterday, which is designed to make life all the easier for the average traveler. Ryan Massie, Director of Product Management for Ask.com, took the time to chat with Mike McDonald of WebProNews at Search Engine Strategies in Chicago, outlining some of the features that we could expect from AskCity.

You’re on vacation in Chicago; it’s Friday night, and you’re looking for a hot spot to go and check out the local scene. In pulling out your trusty notebook, you see that Cabaret Metro is featuring a great local act tonight, but you have no idea how to get there. Consequently, you pull the listing up in an online business directory to get an address, and then you navigate to another site to map out the directions from your hotel to the Metro. This is a textbook scenario that Ask.com is looking to streamline with the launch of AskCity.

The platform is structured to integrate event search, business listings, movie search and map features all into one application, providing a wider range of information and interest for users of the service. AskCity contains a couple of different features that separate it from other mapping services, annotated maps and walking directions.

Map annotation serves a “social geography” role in allowing users to annotate their own maps and share them with friends, highlighting particular points of interest or even just arranging a particular place to meet. AskCity’s walking directions are also a well-conceived tool for large cities such as Chicago or New York, which implement many one-way streets that often make it faster and more efficient to walk to a particular destination.

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