Denver’s most recognizable dot-com is at a crossroads, grappling with a steep erosion of its core business amid fierce competition from a pair of tech Goliaths in Google and Apple.

MapQuest, once the nation’s go-to source for online driving directions, is plotting a comeback with a battle plan that includes creating original content, adding more local data to search results, revamping its home page and improving the integration between its mobile and desktop products.

Analysts and observers, including a MapQuest co-founder no longer tied to the business, say the company’s days as a leader in online mapping are over, the reality of facing deep-pocketed competitors.

Some are even predicting a fate similar to that of another one-time Internet staple, Netscape. The former Web browsing giant spiraled downward after Microsoft began bundling Internet Explorer with its dominant Windows operating system.

Similarly, Google and Apple’s mapping apps are native to the leading smartphone operating systems, a distinct advantage in an increasingly mobile battle.

In a recent interview from the company’s headquarters in LoDo, MapQuest’s top executive, Brian McMahon, doesn’t shy away from the comparison to Netscape. Both companies were acquired by AOL during their heyday about 15 years ago, MapQuest for roughly a billion dollars and Netscape for four times that amount.

McMahon notes that while Netscape is gone, it spawned Mozilla, the organization behind the Firefox Web browser.

“Netscape was a great product,” said McMahon, a longtime AOL executive who took over as MapQuest’s general manager in January 2013. “It clearly was a market leader that kind of fell off the map. Then, all of sudden, it resurrected itself in a different way.

“I fundamentally believe that’s something we can do with MapQuest,” he said.

MapQuest was incubated inside Chicago-based publishing giant R.R. Donnelley & Sons and operated as a subsidiary called Geosystems Global Corp. before going public in 1999.

The company chose Denver for its headquarters because of the state’s roots in geotechnology, said co-founder Perry Evans, who left MapQuest before it went public.

“Denver is considered to have one of the largest concentrations of technology professionals in geosciences,” said Evans, now CEO of Denver-based tech startup Closely.

In 2009, Google Maps overtook MapQuest as the No. 1 online provider of maps and directions in the U.S., according to Internet analytics firm comScore.

Evans said Google had a grander vision for maps and placed more resources behind the product than AOL. Google claimed in December 2012 that its Maps services, which include desktop and mobile, attracted more than 1 billion monthly active users worldwide.

“The geeks took over and really turned it into something that had a lot more leverage and scope then the way AOL was running it,” Evans said.

Last year, the Google Maps smartphone app had an average of 68.6 million U.S. mobile users a month, while Apple’s Maps app attracted nearly 32 million monthly users, according to research firm Nielsen.

For all its struggles, MapQuest says it still draws an average of 40 million U.S. users each month to its desktop site and mobile app, with the latter accounting for about 15 million users.

As more consumers turn to their smartphones for driving directions, the company is focused on improving its app, adding features such as an ETA bar that gives users an updated snapshot of their route. It also plans to add alternate routes to the program.

By year end, it will launch a redesigned desktop site that offers a similar experience to its mobile app.

“We have to do a better job of tying desktop and mobile together,” McMahon said. “We watch our usage patterns. We know how people are using it, and we’re not giving them a great experience from desktop to mobile.”

The company has signed partnerships with GrubHub, Priceline and others to allow users to order food, book travel and perform other functions directly from the MapQuest site.

McMahon, though, suggested that the company may eventually create its own services and lean less on the revenue-sharing deals.

MapQuest also plans to leverage the vast amount of data it gathers through user searches to generate travel-related stories for its revamped site. The company is creating videos about things to do in certain markets under a partnership with Major League Baseball.

“You’ll see more content coming from MapQuest,” he said.

The company is also working on improving its search algorithm to give users the most relevant results. For example, if the majority of users who search for a certain intersection end up visiting the same restaurant, that business will rise to the top of the results.

MapQuest has already undergone similar makeovers. In 2010, it revamped the home page.

A year later, the company launched a social mapping site called MapQuest Vibe. McMahon acknowledges that the initiative failed.

“We’ve taken an about-face on that,” he said.

Charles King, an analyst with industry research and analysis firm Pund-IT, said the new partnerships “might be a way for MapQuest to increase the value of their product and to remain relevant in what’s become an extremely innovative part of the online and mobile market.”

But others say it may be too little, too late.

“MapQuest to Google is like MySpace to Facebook,” said Roger Kay, a technology analyst with Endpoint Technologies Associates. “MapQuest is rooted in the prior era and couldn’t adapt fast enough.”

Kay points to MapQuest’s disadvantage in the high-growth area of mobile, saying there’s little chance MapQuest can grow that business with Google and Apple controlling the dominant operating systems in Android and iOS.

Evans, the MapQuest co-founder, said the company needs to scrap its old desktop business model and focus on creating new experiences.

“It still has a strong brand affinity around travel, especially road-based travel, which presents a unique opportunity to create something … that may be much more usable and designed for trip planning or trip blogging and sharing,” he said. “I don’t think it’s viable to try and convince the consumer that MapQuest is the go-to place for general-purpose mapping and directions because that ship has sailed.”

MapQuest is still recognized as a major tech brand in Denver. The company employs about 100 nationwide, including 65 at its LoDo headquarters.

“They’re certainly one of the classic top four or five anchor technology businesses of the Denver scene over the last decade,” Evans said. “Everybody wants them to continue to succeed and to find new paths to growth.”

Andy Vuong : 303-954-1209, avuong@denverpost.com or twitter.com/andyvuong