26 June 2007

Unprepared for the weather despite the forecasts, the largest crowd in attendance ever at Glastonbury was on the receiving end of the soaking to top all soakings this weekend! Despite festival goers' denial when it comes to planning their wardrobes, it cannot be said that they don't plan their journeys... In the five-day period from 16th to 20th June 2007 alone, over 8,000 people searched for maps and directions to Glastonbury on www.multimap.com, Europe's number one online mapping website, as compared to the much more modest figure of 1,000 for an average week.

So, while getting to Worthy farm on time and unflustered topped the bill for a huge proportion of festival goers at what is arguably the greatest music festival of the UK music calendar, their attire didn't, alas, benefit from the same consideration given their travel plans!

The recently-launched reincarnation of Multimap's award-winning website, www.multimap.com, is proving extremely popular with new and existing users alike. Feedback from customers is that they love the multitude of new features available on the site, including 'hybrid' draggable maps, improved imagery, and best-of-breed overlays; choice of map type, including Ordnance Survey maps; the availability of even more local information; local eBay vendor search; personalised journey planning with the ability to save your favourite maps and routes; new mobile services and integration between web and mobile; sophisticated printable itineraries; and improved hotel search.

Commenting on the new site, Sean Phelan, founder of Multimap, said, "Since launching Multimap over twelve years ago now, when the most people relied on printed maps for their travel planning, journey planning online has become part of the fabric of most people's everyday life, whether for business or pleasure. As Europe's number one online mapping company, we're in a strong position to monitor changes in consumer behaviour and can report trends towards increased unique users on the site, increased frequency of usage, and increased site stickiness. With the new face of Multimap.com proving even more popular than our last version, offering even richer functionality and more information, this trend is set to continue apace!"

Notes to editors

Exciting new features at www.multimap.com include:

'Hybrid' draggable maps, improved imagery, and best-of-breed overlays

• Users can now "grab" the map and "drag" it to get a more complete view of the area they're looking at. Multimap has also enhanced its satellite and aerial imagery coverage: satellite and aerial views of the entire world are now available. And the new site offers Multimap's unique "hybrid" map overlaid on satellite and aerial images - a service that Multimap pioneered in 2001.

A choice of map type, including Ordnance Survey maps

• Multimap is the only site that offers users the ability to change the type of map you view at the click of a button! Prefer the look of Ordnance Survey Landranger maps? Or Collins maps of London? Just hover your mouse over the "map" button in the top left corner of the map, click on the small map that appears, and the map changes!

Daily essentials for every journey - whatever the distance

• More local information: the "useful information" panel enables you to view points of interest - such as cashpoints, petrol stations, hospitals, and Wi-Fi hotspots - on our maps. Click on the individual markers to see more detail about each point of interest

Local eBay vendor search

• Find your nearest desired item on sale exclusively with Multimap! You can now search for items from eBay vendors near you, or in a specific area. This facility is particularly useful if you're searching for large items, such as a car, and don't want to trek across the country to get it.

Personalised journey planning

• Add your own favourites! It's no longer necessary to be signed up for MyMultimap to save up to three favourite routes or maps. (But if you do sign up, you can save up to 20 favourites, and see them on your mobile - see below.)

New mobile services and integration between web and mobile

• Thanks to tight integration between web and mobile, the days of printing a map and promptly leaving it on a printer are long gone. Not only can you still push a map to your mobile phone - you can now use MyMultimap Mobile to see your favourites and search history. You can also find new maps while on the move. Just register for MyMultimap, include your mobile number in the registration information, and you're on your way!

Sophisticated printable itinerary

• New print options: we now offer you the ability to print a page showing an overview map, plus detailed views of an area; this detailed option also shows nearest transport links on your print-out.

Improved hotel search

• More comprehensive hotel searching: you can now see hotels from our partners - Active Hotels, ASE, Wotif, and Marriot - overlaid on the map you're viewing. Just click on the individual markers to see more details of each hotel. You can also search for hotels that have availability on particular dates by clicking on "refine selection".

About Multimap

Multimap is one of the world's leading providers of mapping and location-based services. The company delivers more online maps, point-to-point driving directions and geo-spatial ("where's my nearest?") searches to more companies than any other supplier in Europe. All services are offered on mobile, PDA, kiosk, and interactive TV platforms. We also offer a highly-functional API (Application Programming Interface).

The public website, www.multimap.com, provides a range of free, useful services to assist with everyday life. Key features include street-level maps of Europe, USA, Canada, New Zealand and Australia; road maps of the world; door-to-door travel directions; aerial photographs; links to location information; and services such as hotel, restaurant and entertainment booking. The public site attracts over 10 million unique users, registers more than 190 million page impressions every month, and is one of the top 10 most visited websites in the UK.

Multimap recently featured in The Sunday Times Virgin Atlantic Fast Track 100 league table of fastest-growing unquoted UK companies across all sectors. In 2006, Queen Elizabeth II awarded Multimap The Queen's Award for Enterprise in the innovation category, and Multimap was one of only three companies to feature in the Sunday Times Microsoft Tech Track 100 league of fastest-growing unquoted UK technology companies for the fourth year running. Also in 2006, the company featured in the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 for the UK and Ireland, and the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 for EMEA. Multimap also featured in the Deloitte Touche's Technology Fast 50 league for London and Southern England in 2005 and, in the same year, Red Herring named Multimap as one of the Top 100 private companies in Europe.