Google Maps: Around the Mulberry Bush
Google maps, like Google itself, has grown into a dominant force on the Internet … but have you tried using it to get from point A to point B? Here’s what I’ve found — if there are two ways to get someplace — simple, easy and quick versus complicated and overly out-of-the-way — Google maps chooses the latter.
My wife and I took a weekend trip to Chincoteague, Virginia, and trusted Google maps. Quite honestly, we weren’t paying a lot of attention at first but then, we realized – as we drove off the main highways and along two-lane country roads – that Google maps had steered us about 20 miles out of the way!
So, I tested Google maps on a couple of simple trips – including from our home in Virginia to a specific address in Washington, DC … normally a distance of about seven miles. Sure enough, Google maps plotted not only a longer route but one that would have encountered more traffic congestion, traffic lights and narrow streets. Beware!
Alternatives — Yahoo maps is consistently good. Mapquest is okay.
Category: Personal notes
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I really hate how so many of the directions send you so far out of the way. On the other hand i remember long before online maps, when i use to have to try and figure out from AAA maps how to get places, I often took the longer, more congested route. (Or at least that’s the way it seemed.)
One of the most interesting things that i have seen Google Maps do lately, is their usefulness in helping with natural and human disasters. KPBS was updating this Google map every 5 – 15 minutes during the latest California wildfire crisis.
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=114250687465160386813.00043d08ac31fe3357571
This allowed individuals monitor the progress of the fire, the warning and evacuations down to the street level