Donnelley & Sons began generating maps and routes for customers, with cooperation by Barry Glick, a University at Buffalo Ph.D.[4] In 1994, it was spun off as GeoSystems Global Corporation.

MapQuest's original services were mapping (referred to as "Interactive Atlas") and driving directions (called "TripQuest").

[5] Sensing the emerging demand for spatial applications on the Internet, and with crippling network latency in Lancaster, the executive team of Barry Glick and Perry Evans moved MapQuest to the up-and-coming LoDo area of Denver, Colorado.

To make MapQuest a serious contender in the online spatial application market, a robust set of geographical tools was developed under Greenman's direction.

The initial team experienced rapid growth in the Denver office, and in a short time MapQuest was becoming a well-known brand.

[7] For a period (until 2004),[8] MapQuest included satellite images through a licensing deal with GlobeXplorer, but later removed them because of the unorthodox business mechanics[clarification needed] of the arrangement brokered by AOL.

[18] On 11 July 2016, MapQuest discontinued its open tile API,[19][20] and users such as GNOME Maps were switched to a temporarily free tier of the Mapbox tileserver,[21] while considering alternatives.

MapQuest has several travel products and also includes a feature to let users compare nearby gas prices, similar to the service offered by GasBuddy.

MapQuest's POI data helps the service differentiate itself from other wayfinding software by guiding users directly to the entrances of businesses and destinations, rather than to general street addresses.