
Google Maps has quietly added a sweet new feature which has greatly improved its “get directions” function. You can now easily alter the route it’s planned for you with a simple drag and drop – which is great if you can see that it hasn’t generated the optimal route for you.
I discovered this by accident yesterday when I was planning my trip across town from St Kilda to the RRR studios at Nicholson St, Brunswick East. Google Maps plotted a route straight through the city for me, which seemed crazy at peak hour. To change the route, all I had to do was put the cursor over the blue line which shows the route, and drag it to where I’d prefer to drive – in this case, via Punt Road to skirt the city centre.
You can click on certain sections of the route to change it on a point to point basis, handy for planning a trip with multiple stops.
Google put up a little video tutorial which you can see here.
Looks like the ability to check the traffic conditions isn’t available in Australia yet though.
James Ottaway
September 20, 2007 at 11:45 AM
This one is actually a few months old, but still a fantastic feature and a great tip for those that didn’t know. Google have done so well with AJAX.
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