Comment Web page maps back in the good old days (Score 1) 92
Years ago my employers decided we needed maps on our web-based application. Google Maps was in its infancy and didn't really have commercial terms, so we bought a mapping package (MapInfo) and figured out how to make it play with our software. The initial performance was disastrous. I figured out how to make it less disastrous.
I also spent some time designing attractive maps. I collected paper maps (I like maps anyway), picked out the ones I liked, tried to identify why I liked them. Made MapInfo draw similar maps. Liked what I saw. I even bought a couple of fonts from Adobe to dress up the presentation, to try to make the maps ours. I subsequently attended a map design session at a MapInfo user's conference and confirmed I was generally on the right track.
Then the Powers That Be said our maps had to look like Google Maps. So they did.
...laura