It’s a real pity that none of the decent mapping sites in Australia seem to offer directions. (i.e. Zoom In or Google maps)
whereis.com does seem to give semi-decent directions, but has poor looking maps, and the interface is horrible by comparison (though they’re attempt at dynamic zooming is quite amusing). The other problem with whereis is that it’s impossibly to email someone a link to one of their maps without paying for it, which seems rather silly.
I imagine it would be quite challenging to generate good driving directions efficiently, but then, it would also be difficult to build the maps in the first place I imagine. Anyway, here’s hoping the other guys get the directions working sometime soon, or whereis gets it’s interface act together.
On the other hand, perhaps there’s one I haven’t heard about yet.
December 22nd, 2006 at 10:36 am
I use TomTom for navigation in my car. TomTom a GPS navigation system that is built ontop of whereis. It’s kinda the norm for satellite navigation in Australia so being the lemming that I am, I just got what everyone else got. Truthfully, it’s not too bad. Rarely does it get confused about where I am and it can dynamically recalculate routes if I take a wrong turn or if I just choose to deviate from the “suggested” path. The perspective isn’t a top down one as with the internet maps but more of a front on perspective with the start of the road bigger towards the bottom of the screen and the end of the road that you’re driving on getting smaller towards the top of the screen. There’s labels and such as well.
But you’re right, Google Maps aren’t too good with directions. They haven’t gotten the Australia map quite as good as they do in the States. But they’re working on it, from what I hear. It’s what the Sydney office is mostly about.
ps. good to hear from you. hope you’re well :).