Yahoo had a big day today (April 12, 2006) unveiling some improvements to its current map beta and to its travel search offering. The mapping improvement adds global satellite imagery to Yahoo Maps offering which is a feature that is currently offered by most of Yahoo's direct competitors with the exception of Ask Maps. This improvement was needed as Yahoo and Google are leading the battle for web 2.o mapping supremacy. To demonstrate the new feature I have included a satellite image (below) of one of my favorite Chicago landmarks.
The travel search improvements appear to two fold. First, Yahoo has integrated links from Yahoo Chasefare, a Yahoo travel search product, which aggregates travel deals (flights and hotels) and maps them on a Yahoo map. 
Second, the Yahoo Trip Planner which I highlighted previously has had some of its user generated content integrated into the travel section to offer travelers resources to help with travel planning decisions. Does Yahoo plan to mirror this user generated content integration strategy in other search verticals by offering links to Flickr or del.icio.us?
