Maps have been helping people find their way at least since 2300 B.C., when Babylonians sketched the lay of the land on clay tablets. Today's paper maps might be more portable, but they're far less necessary, thanks to Global Positioning System technology and the Web. With a browser and a printer, you can obtain tailor-made maps of where you are or where you're going from sites like MapBlast (www.mapblast.com ) and MapQuest.com (www.mapquest.com ). By April, MapQuest was receiving "8 million map draws per day, a 30 percent increase from the end of last year," says Nick Hopkins, director of applications development for MapQuest. For those who prefer photorealism, Terraserver (terraserver.microsoft.com) offers satellite photographs of the Earth at resolutions of up to 1 square meter. With Internet-enabled door-to-door navigation, the days of stopping at gas stations to ask directions are also coming to a close. MapQuest already provides text-based directions on handheld phones and wireless devices. William D. Brockmeyer II, CEO and president of Voice Access Technologies, predicts that turn-by-turn help via voice recognition will be available by the middle of next year on any wireless phone, anywhere, anytime. How's that for never getting lost again?