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Google Maps Now Does Interactive Re-Routing
An anonymous reader writes "Remember how cool it was the first time you used MapQuest or Google Maps or Google Earth? You'll feel like it's the first time again, when you use interactive dragging of routes on Google Maps. Some of the folks from the development team have even whipped up a handy video to explain the concept."
Just because they did their homework and programmed the original Google Maps with reusable code, doesn't mean that a new feature added that uses already implemented code isn't 'Amazing'.
Looking at the feature by itself is pretty nifty! Let's not judge it by saying "well, they didn't add any new code for this so it's nothing new..."
A black cat crossing your path signifies that the animal is going somewhere. -- Groucho Marx
True, but that misses the point. Yes, it was possible before - in the same way that satellite imagery was available on TerraServer for years before Google Maps. The difference between possible and easy is all the difference in the world.
i noticed this today and its a good idea though the most complaints i hear from my customers (uk) when i point out how Google maps works and how to use it is the accuracy of driving directions, and so they tell me after using that they still prefer to use Mapquest/AA even though their visualisation of mapping is inferior to Google's, fancy draggable routes mean nothing if the directions are wrong or inadequate for route navigation and so i cant really argue with them because its true (in my/customers experience)
while calculating directions is a very complex task (1 way systems, roundabouts, roads closed etc) i think this is a challenge that Google could excel at
I'd like to see editing of the small turn maps that they have on the print screen. I don't need a little map to show me the turn out of my street at the beginning on the trip. I always get rid of it.
However, I would like maybe to see the 3 or 4 major turns in the trip, or a close-up view of some smaller, complicated streets that don't really resolve in the map of the entire trip.
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
-- Pablo Picasso
From a strict 'new technology' perspective: Agreed - nothing revolutionary. As an improvement to the way the average Joe can plans trips, done in a incredibly simple, intuitive fashion that non-techies will truly appreciate: Truly awesome.
-NB
Streets and Trips has been able to do this for a while now.
check this link http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/.
A great tool that i have been using for long time.
And no, I have nothing better to do on this fine Friday evening. Heh.
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
I discovered this feature only *after* cycling 20KM to a softball game the other night (I'm an overweight 44 year-old). The distance looked so small on the map and Google didn't inform me that it was uphill both ways. Bastards.
I have wished they had this feature almost every time I use it.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Given that ajax techniques were pretty much non-existant in 98, yep, it would have been considered innovative. Probably "nearly a decade ahead of its time" innovative.
I find it amusing (well, "annoying" is probably a better word) the way people, who have presumably never innovated anything of note in their lives, love to declare what other people have done to be "non-innovative". Why didn't you produce it for us in the time between 98 and now, if it was so easy and obvious?
Is it possible to route a destination through a junior college acting class?
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
I also noticed that they did not solve the "traveling salesman" problem. If you add multiple stops, it will happily have you doubling back on your route.
What are you talking about? Just because you 'double back' on your route does not mean it is inconsistent with the TSP. It may simply be the most optimal, for its definition of optimal route. Most software will optimise over travel time, rather than simply distance (you don't want to travel dirt tracks forever do you?) and usually it makes sense to return to the main road, even if this means a brief journey away from your destination, or even repeating part of the route you have performed.
Optimising over travel time is NOT the usual TSP optimisation problem, and if if you do optimise over distance, what's wrong with backtracking? If one city had to be visited, and that city had only one road in and out, how could it be avoided?
Contrary to what you and some other posters have pointed out, solving the TSP problem "good enough" is actually rather trivial. The simplest approach is a generic algorithm. Look it up.
Um, I bookmark google maps all the time. Maybe you're stupid? Cuz when you look up a location it goes in the URL bar which if you add as a bookmark will go to that location.
Sorry, but you're just stupid. All of the people I know use google maps to route trips or find places. Works just fine.
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
It's a little more complicated than the traditional salesman problem because these graphs are weighted and directed. Even then there are still good algorithms to calculate such routes. Most algorithms are "fast", but not 100ms or 200ms fast. For the speed and scale that Google does this at, it's pretty damn impressive. (Scale being both the size of the graph, and quantity of queries received)
Regards,
Steve
Firstly, excellent work Google Maps guys. This works beautifully - I can correct routes I take (359 to 323 miles in recent attempt) and send a URL to somebody. Awesome! I can also use it at tax time for figuring out mileage.
So, one last feature request. Frequently I have several stops to make on a trip and I'd like Google Maps to figure out the best path to get me to each of them (including traffic, of course) and then back home again. Maybe you could put this on the list for the next release? Killer feature, I tell 'ya.
You'd make this CS nerd's life easier - Thanks!
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
I'm driving from Ottawa to Moose Jaw this August. I would rather take this route rather than the default suggestion, because I'd like to see my own country first, it's shorter in distance (although not in time), I have a place to crash in Winnipeg, and I won't have to worry about arriving in Chicago at the wrong time.
This feature is very useful. Before, to find out how long the trans-Canada route was, I had to make three separate trips and add the distances manually to get the total.
Look at the top-right of the page. See the "Saved Locations" link?
Do you think you could map a route for me and then fed ex me your old GPS device? Thanks in advance.
It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
The map data has nothing to do with the routes. All Navteq sells to Google and Mapquest is a massive amount of vector-data that maps streets in geo-spatial coordinates. It is up to Google and Mapquest to determine the shortest path between any two points using this data.
It is more difficult than it sounds. Discovering the shortest path in a weighted map is a simple, well known algorithm that any third year computer science major would have studied. The problem is in the weighting. Things such as speed limits, number of traffic lights, road conditions, speed limits of intersecting roads, ourly traffic patterns - all of these affect the amount of time one route takes over another.
Aside from the fact that it is impossible to be up-to-date with this data on a constant basis, some of it changes based on the time of day of your planned trip. For example your morning "shortcut" to work may not be any faster on the weekend when the main route is not as congested.
I think in general, all the mapping sites to a remarkable job given the data they have access to. It is highly unlikely ny one site is "more accurate" than the other picking routes all of the time. What is probably happening is the place where you are going has some factors that have changed recently, or have not been acounted for, in one site vs. the other. You would for certain be able to find counter-examples that make the other site look better at other places in the country.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&geocode=&sa
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