DIRECT FROM DENVER: MAPQUEST.

• Author: Peterson, Eric

From its two downtown Denver locations, MapQuest.com Inc.'s servers dole out more than 100 million page views per month. The servers, co-located at Qwest Communications International Inc. and Inflow Inc. are key to New York City-based MapQuest.com's Internet operations.

MapQuest is an advanced mapping solutions company, perhaps best known for its interactive maps and driving directions. In December, America Online announced plans to purchase MapQuest, an announcement that capped a year in which MapQuest went public, inked dozens of alliance agreements and reported strong revenue growth.

"The MapQuest site itself (www.mapquest.com) is ranked in the top 50 in the world, in terms of number and visitors and traffic," said Marc Haverland, the company's director of Internet engineering. Media Metrix Inc., a New York City-based Internet-usage tracker, ranked MapQuest.com as the second most visited travel website for December 1999. (First place went to America Online's...