A lifetime ago when I lived in the US, I was always flummoxed by driving directions that online websites gave: Turn right on Cherry Blossom Avenue and head North North West for 10 meters. Okay, okay, I am exaggerating a *bit*, but honestly, without a compass, driving directions in terms of NSEW were pretty meaningless to me and I often got lost and missed destinations.
At that time people insisted *very* confidently that as far as India was concerned, there was no question of dirving directions because:
*> Roads got added (and subtracted) dynamically
*> Road names changed at will (or with the elections ;-))
*> Road directions changed *all* the time!
Well, some time back I looked up driving directions using google maps. Guess what? Not only did I get directions, I got them Indian "ishtyle" :-D
"Turn left on 5th Main, pass Sweet Chariot on your right, keep going till you see the Ganesha temple, then take 3rd cross, and after passing the Masjid on your left, your destination will be on the right."
Notice that there is enough information that one doesn't need to try and decode and then measure "North North West for 10 meters". Such directions work (for me definitely ;-)) because there are enough visual clues that are *much* easier to follow.
No more getting lost for me :-D
At that time people insisted *very* confidently that as far as India was concerned, there was no question of dirving directions because:
*> Roads got added (and subtracted) dynamically
*> Road names changed at will (or with the elections ;-))
*> Road directions changed *all* the time!
Well, some time back I looked up driving directions using google maps. Guess what? Not only did I get directions, I got them Indian "ishtyle" :-D
"Turn left on 5th Main, pass Sweet Chariot on your right, keep going till you see the Ganesha temple, then take 3rd cross, and after passing the Masjid on your left, your destination will be on the right."
Notice that there is enough information that one doesn't need to try and decode and then measure "North North West for 10 meters". Such directions work (for me definitely ;-)) because there are enough visual clues that are *much* easier to follow.
No more getting lost for me :-D
Google maps still have a long way to go in India. Their recent improvements are good, but since I am a mapping enthusiast, I can see that they still fail at many places. Comparing Google Maps' accuracy in some of the western countries and in India, I believe that they still have a lot of work to do. Yahoo maps is a touch better, MapmyIndia is even better, but none of them are accurate enough.
ReplyDeleteThese directions seem like they were made for me!! Would be so perfect - if only UK Google had something like this!
ReplyDeleteI have used websites for directions in UK and here with google, they are excellent. I like the fact that they give landmarks which is very useful because you invariably miss atleast one cross road when for example they say take the second or third left
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