Wanderlust World Wanderlust World Multimap was one of the United Kingdom's pioneering online mapping and navigation services, acquired by Microsoft in 2007 and eventually integrated into Bing Maps. During its peak, it set the standard for British digital cartography.
Multimap's crown jewel was its partnership with Ordnance Survey (OS), Britain's national mapping agency. This gave users access to the legendary OS Landranger and Explorer map series—detailed 1:25,000 and 1:50,000 scale maps showing every footpath, contour line, field boundary, and historic feature. For hikers, surveyors, and outdoor enthusiasts, this was revolutionary.
Long before Google Transit, Multimap offered real-time UK public transport data—train times from National Rail, bus schedules from Traveline, London Underground status, and even ferry timetables. Journey planning combined walking, rail, bus, and tube seamlessly.
The service indexed millions of UK businesses and points of interest with detailed listings: addresses, phone numbers, opening hours, user reviews, and precise map positioning. Categories ranged from hospitals and pharmacies to pubs, museums, and electric charging points.
Multimap's routing engine supported door-to-door directions for driving (with live traffic), cycling (using National Cycle Network), walking (including footpaths), and public transport. It handled complex multi-stop journeys and provided printable route sheets with OS map extracts.
Accessible via website and mobile apps (iOS, Android, Windows Mobile), Multimap also offered API access for developers. Its integration with Microsoft's ecosystem eventually saw its best features absorbed into Bing Maps, including OS map layers (for UK), bird's-eye aerial imagery, and the transport engine.
While the Multimap brand was retired around 2014, its influence persists. It proved that hyper-local, authoritative mapping could work commercially, established user expectations for UK-specific detail (rights of way, parish boundaries, listed buildings), and demonstrated the value of integrating transport and mapping—principles now central to every major mapping platform.