Why do so many websites waste valuable space with huge (essentially) blank fields that make it more difficult to use the website?
Here are 3 examples, including CR4's, shown below. I include MapQuest, too, though Google Maps is about equally guilty. You can't get as much actually mapped area onto the map as you want due to these large empty spaces. If these empty spaces were used for advertisements I could somewhat understand; or if these zones were used for some type of website help tip, I could see that making sense, too. But not these blank zones that just take up space.
The small amount of information shown in these regions (indicated by red boxes) could easily be re-configured to take up less space and to be placed along the side, out of the way of the main webpage region.



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