Google Maps has been launched in beta for the UK and seems to be potentially useful (although I’m not sure about the map on the launch page, which shows the position of Great Britain relative to Newfoundland!). However, a quick look at Ruralville revealed several roads depicted on the map that simply do not exist (they are either footpaths or private drives and farm tracks – I looked at some nearby MoD land on the map and found tracks displayed that are definitely off-limits).
I’ve also tried the driving directions feature, using the journey between home and my parents as the test. It seems that Google doesn’t know the difference between "left", "right" and "straight ahead" – there are several glaring errors in the directions offered to me. I’ll stick to the AA driving directions qwhich are generally accurate, even if their journeyt times are almost always hopelessly optimistic.
Category: amusing links
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Google Maps UK
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Boris on the doorstep
This story made me laugh until there were tears in my eyes. Why would anyone toothbrush their caravan?
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Kitten cuteness
A short animation all about mannirs (work safe). Lovely.
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Making Fiends
Episode 17 now has subtitles for those that do not speak Bulgarian.
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April 1st
Google Gulp! With a bit of self-parody, it seems:
When will you take Google Gulp out of beta?Man, if you pressure us, you just drive us away. We’ll commit when we’re ready, okay? Besides, what’s so great about taking things out of beta? It ruins all the romance, the challenge, the possibilities, the right to explore. Carpe diem, ya know? Maybe we’re jaded, but we’ve seen all these other companies leap headlong into 1.0, thinking their product is exactly what they’ve been dreaming of all their lives, that everything is perfect and hunky-dory – and the next thing you know some vanilla copycat release from Redmond is kicking their butt, the Board is holding emergency meetings and the CEO is on CNBC blathering sweatily about "a new direction" and "getting back to basics". No thanks, man. We like our freedom.