Rating: 
Summary: Addresses are wrong
Review: I'm a distribution manager for a newspaper and I thought that this program would be handy. I used the feature that grabs addresses from a spreadsheet and imputs them into the map. When I double checked the locations, I noticed that more than half of them were wrong. They are often within a few blocks, but that makes it difficult when you are trying to plan a route. I must say though, that the route planner, when it works, is very nice.
Rating: 
Summary: kid picks, articles on points of interest, all gone
Review: I've used Microsoft Streets and Trips through a number of versions, from back when they were two separate products. I skipped the 2001 version, so I don't know if the articles and pictures of interesting attractions were dropped for this version, or one back. The bottom line is that the content that was most useful for planning family vacations was quietly dumped in the last year or two. Now the only "information" you can get is an address and phone number. The "web links" just drop you into a search engine, only marginally better than just using Google yourself. If you want to spend a couple of hours in the evening exploring what might be available along your possible travel route (and not tie up your phone line the entire time) you're out of luck. I deeply regret that I installed this and tossed my older CDs. It never occurred to me that Microsoft would take a major step backwards. If you have an older version, just save your money. I'm going over to eBay to pick up a copy of what I used to have, so I'm out what I paid for this version, plus more to rebuy what I'd paid for before!
Rating:
Summary: Not very accurate
Review: I've used this thing three times and EVERYTIME the directions have been wrong. The maps are usually on spot but the directions are way off base. It tells me to turn on streets that don't exist or are on the otherside of town. This thing needs major improvement
Rating: 
Summary: Improved and updated a good product
Review: Kudos to Microsoft. Job well done. Yes this has been updated , streets that were not there before are now. Linking to internet is easy , just hit search the web on top task bar and any web sites for the cities or area your current map is on will come up. Set up might take a few minutes. ... If you have a Gps reciever plug it in to your laptop with the program. Any GPS reciever with serial ports should work. If you had the previous version you should'ntbe dissapointed. Enjoy Exploring , Michael Croson
Rating:
Summary: My Latest Evaluation
Review: Last year I wrote a negative review about MS Streets & Trips 2002. Based on my recent extensive 10,000-mile driving experience, I would like to post my updated evaluation. All fair and honest evaluation should be based on the merits of product features with respect to other competing products. This year MS Streets & Trips 2002 (ST2K2) won the competition. First of all, NONE of the mapping software products published today can exceed 85% accuracy. All reviewers' complaint about ST2K2 inaccracy in terms of addresses and suggested routes is correct; on the other hand, other competing products are even worse. For example, from Anchorage to Whittier, Alaska, all mapping software products' suggested 300-mile route is completely wrong. My actual route took only 1 hour and 30 minutes. Similarly, the visitor centers or entrances of most National Parks such as Denali and Grand Canyon are miles away from the actual locations. The deliberate delay in displaying updated GPS position is another minor annoyance. With the default delay, it's impractical and, sometimes, extremely dangerous to use ST2K2 for city driving because drivers won't be allowed sufficient time to change lanes or turn left/right. The problem is caused by software publishers' greedy goal of profit maximization at the expense of mapping accuracy by launching newer versions every year. The sad fact is the latest verion doesn't always promise better accuracy. For year 2002, I recommend MS Streets & Trips 2002 for its highest accuracy relative to other competing products. Above all, its user interface is by far the most intuitive. You can master the product in 15 minutes. Let's face the fact that all mapping products are inaccurate. Instead, I insert plenty of pushpins for the actual location of gas stations, hightway rest areas,...etc. By the way, your pushpin data can be transferred to a handheld PC or an iPAQ. Armstrong Wong
Hong Kong
Rating:
Summary: My Latest Evaluation
Review: Last year I wrote a negative review about MS Streets & Trips 2002. Based on my recent extensive 10,000-mile driving experience, I would like to post my updated evaluation. All fair and honest evaluation should be based on the merits of product features with respect to other competing products. This year MS Streets & Trips 2002 (ST2K2) won the competition. First of all, NONE of the mapping software products published today can exceed 85% accuracy. All reviewers' complaint about ST2K2 inaccracy in terms of addresses and suggested routes is correct; on the other hand, other competing products are even worse. For example, from Anchorage to Whittier, Alaska, all mapping software products' suggested 300-mile route is completely wrong. My actual route took only 1 hour and 30 minutes. Similarly, the visitor centers or entrances of most National Parks such as Denali and Grand Canyon are miles away from the actual locations. The deliberate delay in displaying updated GPS position is another minor annoyance. With the default delay, it's impractical and, sometimes, extremely dangerous to use ST2K2 for city driving because drivers won't be allowed sufficient time to change lanes or turn left/right. The problem is caused by software publishers' greedy goal of profit maximization at the expense of mapping accuracy by launching newer versions every year. The sad fact is the latest verion doesn't always promise better accuracy. For year 2002, I recommend MS Streets & Trips 2002 for its highest accuracy relative to other competing products. Above all, its user interface is by far the most intuitive. You can master the product in 15 minutes. Let's face the fact that all mapping products are inaccurate. Instead, I insert plenty of pushpins for the actual location of gas stations, hightway rest areas,...etc. By the way, your pushpin data can be transferred to a handheld PC or an iPAQ. Armstrong Wong
Hong Kong
Rating: 
Summary: Lots of Streets, Lots of False Info
Review: Microsoft Streets and Trips 2002 is a great program with basically every single street in America. It is great for general mapping and finding out addresses and other stuff like that, but when compared to the accuracy of Microsoft Expedia Trip Planner 1998, the reliability begins to fail. Streets and Trips 2002 adds random ramps at interchanges, leaves out forest and picnic areas, and displays many roads that aren't paved as passable to standard vehicles. It's also odd to note that many freeways, which opened up in 2001, were not on Streets and Trips 2002, including a major part of the 210 Freeway extension in southern California around Interstate 15. That's just one example of how the program missed out on updates that should have taken place. I hope 2004 is better; otherwise, I'll just wait until 2005 for an upgrade.
Rating:
Summary: Don't bother for a trip to the outdoors
Review: MS Streets and Trips was very unsatisfactory for planning a trip to the desert southwest this summer. First, an admission. I often work with a professional mapping program (GIS) so my expectations are probably a little high. I bought MS S&T because I didn't have the appropriate data for the GIS to make maps of the area (I live elsewhere). I thought S&T might work and I was interested in its ability to prepare maps for the Web. The major problem I had with MS S&T is that the maps didn't provide enough information at a useful map size (scale) for the "wide open spaces" I intend to visit. Many times the objects might be there but they would only appear if you zoomed in enough. By then, the map was so zoomed in that you lost all sense of the lay of the land. For example, imagine that you found a campground in a national park, but you had to drag the map five or ten screens across to find the park entrance. By that time you have only a vague sense where the campground was. If you try to zoom out to get an overview, the campground (and probably the entrance station) disappear from the map. There is no control whatsoever over when a object or type of object appears on a map. It's also difficult to put labels on. And natural features aren't very well represented in general. On the plus side, the program lets you import and plot locations by their latitude and longitude. I was able to overcome the scarcity of data by downloading a data set that provides all the landmarks on USGS topo maps and gives their lat/longs (search for GNIS if you're interested). This program apparently was intended almost entirely for trips to urban areas, and for that purpose I offer no opinion. But if you're going to the outdoors, try something else. For my purposes, Delorme's Map Print Pack served well and was inexpensive...
Rating:
Summary: technical accurate .. wasn't so useful to me
Review: Pocket streets is great for locating an address but doesn't help you find it, ie get there. It puts a star on the map but doesn't label all the surrounding streets. All streets are drwan as lines whether they are an alley or a freeway which makes it difficult to understand the geographic context of the address. You can highlight the subway stations but the names are not labelled. I use mapquest.com when using my PC so I really bought this (full price) for my Windows CE Pocket PC. The problem there is that the city databases are memory consuming and handle a limited area. I ended up scanning a few pages of a real map, that is more useful in navigating.
Rating:
Summary: Fast, Easy to Use, Out-of-Date Data
Review: Street and Trips 2002 has a lot of features that are very easy to use. Surprisingly, the response is extremely fast even when calculating long and/or complex routes. The ability to dynamically change a calculated route by dragging it to a different position is fantastic. There is, however, a major problem: the map data is out of date. Several spots near my home are almost two years out of date. Other spots I am familiar with in the state also suffer from incorrect data as well as some incorrect road naming. As for the comments about the GPS function, I don't use it and I would bet most users have no need for it. I do use GPS while on foot and know that the unit itself, a high end version, takes time to react depending upon the satellite visibility and surrounding terrain. Inside a fast moving car, a handheld GPS will not react instantly regardless of software. This is especially true in a city or town due to the numerous obstructions.
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