Nifty!

[firstfrost]

You can drag the route in google maps! Not only is it the function I often want, but it's the UI that's in my head!

I give all credit, deserved or no, to rifmeister, who I suggested this to back in March. I am thrilled to have someone at Google who is enacting my merest whims! Especially when they're such useful and totally cool whims as this.

But I still want to know what's up with the magic links to call any business for free...

Comments

[twe.livejournal.com]

I saw something about that last week. It does indeed sound like something I've been wanting, though I admit I haven't tried it yet.

[rifmeister.livejournal.com]

It's only medium awesome. I tested it on the way I walk from home to work, and there's no way to get it to take anything close to the shortest route. Lots of times you'll drag one segment around, and then it will have segments left that loop back on themselves in a clearly ridiculous way. I'll file a bug report.

[merastra.livejournal.com]

>> I'll file a bug report.

Oh good. I tested it lightly last night too and found similar things but was too sleepy to properly diagnose the problems. I imagine that the programmer(s) responsible for the feature is probably aware of it already though.

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

I think it does try to send you on what it thinks are the fastest roads as much as possible, which isn't at all helpful for a walking route.

I also think that what it's doing isn't quite what the UI suggests - you aren't really dragging segments around, you're just adding a new "stop" to the route, no matter where you started dragging from. I bet that was a pretty easy way to do it, though, since they already had an address-based "add a stop". So it's thinking of it, still, as getting from X to Z with a detour through Y, and a detour can clearly have backtracking in a way that a route shouldn't.

But it's still neat, and it lets me say "Stop trying to send me up to the Mystic Valley Parkway on the way to the airport!" once I figure out where to drag my extra stop to. :)