When travelers need door to door driving directions, Google Maps is often where they turn first. But there's more to Google's popular driving directions site than just driving directions. Here are some ways people use Google maps to get where they're going and learn more about the world on the way.
Online Travel Route Planning with Google Maps
Planning a route has never been easier. Sharing the planned route is simple, done by pulling up the HTML link from the "link" button in the top right corner of Google Maps. Saving the planned route as a "My Maps" in the program and pasting the link on a website allows the creator to share their route planning with anyone, useful in circumstances where a group is travelling together in separate vehicles.
One new feature from Google Maps is the ability to look up maps of more than just roads. The site now features buildings on college campuses, hiking trails and bike routes, thanks to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service, the U.S. Geological Survey and the Census Bureau. Eventually, all of these will also be added to the online travel route planning feature.
Google Transit, another Google Maps feature, shows public transportation and lets users plan routes based on local timetables. It can also show the cost and time comparison of using this method of transport versus travelling by car to a specific destination.
Using Google Maps on a Mobile Phone
For GPS enabled phones, Google Maps can center the map on the exact location of the user. Now, the same function is available using Google Maps on a mobile phone that doesn't have GPS by way of cell phone triangulation.
Google Latitude is another feature useful to cell phone users. Google Latitude lets people share their GPS location if they want to, enabling friends to locate them easily.
Information About the Place
Place Pages are another helpful feature on the Google Maps site. These pages link from the map to pull up a page detailing information about that place, including geotagged photos and videos and reviews. Whether the user is searching for a good restaurant in the area or just wants to see what a building looks like before they arrive there, Place Pages can help.
Using Street View in Google Maps
Anyone can use Street View to view geotagged photos and pictures taken by the Google van that traveled the country taking shots of all roads across the US. Clicking the "more" button at the top of the screen brings up these photos. Users can also pull up a Wikipedia entry and YouTube videos from the street view.
With so many features and functions, and with more coming online as developers make applications for it, Google Maps is more than just a driving directions site.
 |
 |
 |
 |
