Yesterday I focused on two websites that exist somewhere between bad and god-awful. Meanwhile, Google Maps, a site I’ve complained about before — you may remember the confounding sets of directions pictured below — has added a valuable feature: multi-point directions. Multi-point directions are of course great if you are journeying to or through multiple locations. They are also valuable when the mapping service in question doesn’t give you the directions you want. With multi-point capabilities, you can, more or less, define the route you want to take and have the directions and maps you want; as opposed to the directions and maps they want to give you.
Moreover, they have done multi-point directions better than Yahoo! Maps beta. If you use multiple points, Yahoo! just gives you the time and distance for the entire trip. Google was smart enough to break that down by leg of the journey. Good move.
It’s definitely a step in the right direction for the Google folks. Hopefully they continue to implement my suggestions from the previous post.
PS: The directions that Google just gave me for going home are different than either of the two above. But this time they’re the directions I wanted.
Why is it also showing how to get to the Raleigh area?
That was from months ago when I was mapping out potential grad schools.
I couldn’t believe that the directions came together and then diverged later, despite having the same destination.