Google "Driving" Directions

Los Angeles to Paris produces a similar item. However, you simply CAN'T get from, say, NY to Honolulu; Google doesn't have the appropriate Easter egg for that.

[Indeed. I didn't want to spoil the joke, but I checked a number of routes for the fun of it. Google provides swimming directions for anything across the Atlantic Ocean, but not across the Pacific. And its directions run out fairly far into Europe (I got as far as Moscow and Odessa). I suspect that's because Google doesn't have normal land directions for places in Asia yet. -Adam]

At 09:24 -0700 2007.04.10, David Clark wrote:

>Go to Google Maps, then click "Get directions." Enter from New York, NY,
>and to Paris, France.
>
>Check item 23.

This is a wonderful example of the maxim,
     Ask a silly question and you get a silly answer.

Art Evans

At 9:24 AM -0700 4/10/07, David Clark wrote:
>Go to Google Maps, then click "Get directions." Enter from New York, NY,
>and to Paris, France.
>
>Check item 23.

        Interesting, I would have thought the swim would have been shorter
starting from somewhere on the West side of Cape Cod Bay, or maybe driving
up to Cape Breton and starting from there, rather than driving to Boston
first and "Long Warf" rather than any of the other ocean starting points.
Maybe Long Warf has a particularly nice entry to the water?

--
* Johann Beda - contact link: <http://xri.net/=j-beda> *
* Johann's MostlyMac Computer Consulting - <http://mmcc.beda.ca/> *

At 09:24 04/10/07 -0700, David Clark wrote:
>Go to Google Maps, then click "Get directions." Enter from New York, NY,
>and to Paris, France.
>
>Check item 23.

They appear to have just the single trans-Atlantic link. Asking for Miami
FL to Lisbon Portugal uses the same link. I could not find any other
transoceanic links -- no way to get from the US to Australia for example.
However, using that link will take you at least as far east as Moscow.
That's Russia, not Idaho.

And note that the trip time is adjusted.

Edward
--
Art works by Melynda Reid: http://paleo.org

On Apr 11, 2007, at 4:20 AM, lymond909 wrote:

> Los Angeles to Paris produces a similar item. However, you simply
> CAN'T get from, say, NY to Honolulu; Google doesn't have the
> appropriate Easter egg for that.

They rather boringly--and correctly--suggest the ferry MV Coho from
Port Angeles, WA to Victoria, BC.

    --John

  (MV = Motor Vessel--not someone's initials)

On Wed, 11 Apr 2007, Johann Beda wrote:

> Interesting, I would have thought the swim would have been
> shorter starting from somewhere on the West side of Cape Cod Bay, or
> maybe driving up to Cape Breton and starting from there, rather than
> driving to Boston first and "Long Warf" rather than any of the other
> ocean starting points. Maybe Long Warf has a particularly nice entry
> to the water?

Not especially so, no. That seems to just be the only diving board
they're aware of into Boston Harbor.

I thought it interesting that if you try to plan routes to various
islands around Boston Harbor, it still keeps trying to have you get to
Long Wharf somewhere along the route, e.g. to get from Long Island,
(which is attached by bridge to the land) to Spectacle Island (which is
right next to Long Island, less than a mile away), you're told to drive
through South Boston to downtown to get to Long Wharf, then swim a few
miles through the harbor to Spectacle Island -- except that they leave
you at a point about half a mile off shore from the island itself:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&saddr=long+island+road,+boston,+ma&daddr=spectacle+island,+ma&layer=&sll=42.34687,-71.024806&sspn=0.050114,0.082655&ie=UTF8&z=13&ll=42.321874,-71.015625&spn=0.100268,0.16531&om=1

And if you try to plan a route from, say, Thompson Island to Spectacle
Island -- neither of which is attached to the land -- it still has you
drive from the mainland to Long Wharf, then swim the rest of the way.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&saddr=long+island+road,+boston,+ma&daddr=spectacle+island,+ma&layer=&sll=42.34687,-71.024806&sspn=0.050114,0.082655&ie=UTF8&z=13&ll=42.321874,-71.015625&spn=0.100268,0.16531&om=1

So it's a funny gag, but obviously not fully planned out yet :-)


--
Chris Devers

On Apr 11, 2007, at 5:58 PM, Chris Devers wrote:
> I thought it interesting that if you try to plan routes to various
> islands around Boston Harbor, it still keeps trying to have you get to
> Long Wharf somewhere along the route, e.g. to get from Long Island,
> (which is attached by bridge to the land) to Spectacle Island
> (which is
> right next to Long Island, less than a mile away), you're told to
> drive
> through South Boston to downtown to get to Long Wharf, then swim a few
> miles through the harbor to Spectacle Island -- except that they leave
> you at a point about half a mile off shore from the island itself:

Whatever Google says, it's certainly better than *these* directions:
<http://www.snopes.com/computer/internet/mappoint.asp>.

--
David Weintraub
davidweintraubworld.net
davidweintraub.name

If you ask for directions from the US to London, Google instructs you to swim to the French side of the Channel and then take a car ferry across. I wonder what they know about the difficulty of landing on the White Cliffs of Dover?

At 09:24 on 10-04-2007, David Clark wrote:
> Go to Google Maps, then click "Get directions." Enter from New York, NY,
> and to Paris, France.
>
> Check item 23.

Good to see Google trying to reduce carbon emissions by encouraging
people not to fly. :-D

Further to other people's comments, if you try to get directions to
anywhere in the UK, landfall is still made in France, which is a long
way around (though I guess it allows for picking up some cheap wine
to celebrate the achievement!).

_________________
=> Jolin

"I wonder what they know about the difficulty of landing on the White Cliffs of Dover?"

People have scaled them using ice climbing equipment. =8^|

Yahoo Maps once gave me directions from Corona, Calif., to an address in San Diego, but instead of exiting from a freeway near the address, it directed the unsuspecting to drive north on I-5 for nearly 40 miles, get off in San Juan Capistrano, drive under the freeway and get back on going south and then take the second freeway for a couple of miles to the appropriate exit!

Bob Beamesderfer wrote:
> "I wonder what they know about the difficulty of landing on the White
> Cliffs of Dover?"
>
> Yahoo Maps once gave me directions from Corona, Calif., to an address
> in San Diego, but instead of exiting from a freeway near the address,
> it directed the unsuspecting to drive north on I-5 for nearly 40
> miles, get off in San Juan Capistrano, drive under the freeway and
> get back on going south and then take the second freeway for a couple
> of miles to the appropriate exit!

I've had to tell my kids in no uncertain terms that when I say "MAP", in
no way shape or form does that mean "directions". I've gotten on the
road and the "map" they pulled out had us driving all over the place and
we even missed an event before they got the message. Around here,
Raleigh, NC, there are enclaves of somewhat square grids but we're one
of the fastest growing spots on the planet with large amounts of "main"
roads following stream paths and such from 100 or 200 years ago.
Directions can take you down roads that were recently cut in 1/2 by a
new expressway or to an intersection that has recently moved 1/4 mile to
rationalize traffic. At least with a map you can figure out what
alternate road might get to to where you want to go.

David Ross