[samdarshi.pali]

I noticed Google India recently added feature to find detailed driving directions for Indian roads. This is similar to Yahoo India maps but have an more useful print facility. This print version of Google Maps splits the whole route into smaller blocks that are zoomed-in for easy viewing with each step of driving direction.

For each step map block, users can further zoom/reduce the map area visible inside these individual blocks.

I could not experiment how updated/accurate is the driving directions but it has check box options to "Avoid highways" & "Avoid tolls".

So next time you need to find a route, use the Google India map site.

Regards,
Samdarshi

[WanderNomad]

Already a lot of people depend on google for venturing on new routes, this feature is more than welcomed.

[Thad E Ginathom]

That's neat! Thanks!

I just tried it on a route within Chennai. It didn't choose the way that I would have chosen, but you can change the route by dragging points on the blue line, and it re-calculates. That is clever!

[hellstar]

I belive that mapmyindia already had this feature, you have an option of selecting the way points , which will be selectively displayed whicle taking the print out of the route. Anyways its a nice to have feature . The route re calculation is the major difference and i love it !

[vineethvazhayil]

Originally Posted by hellstar

I belive that mapmyindia already had this feature, you have an option of selecting the way points , which will be selectively displayed whicle taking the print out of the route. Anyways its a nice to have feature . The route re calculation is the major difference and i love it !

Yes, Mapmyindia definitely has it and i have used it many times. But i don't think they have the recalculation facility. Cool stuff from google!

[ASHISHPALLOD]

Don't rely on Google direction finder.
It is some times correct and many times WRONG.

[no1lives4ever]

This also works from the google maps client you can install on many phones. I have it installed on my blackberry and nokia phones. I used this feature quite a bit when I did my delhi - bangalore trip this weekend. If you are ussing the phone client and your phone has built in gps, then the routing can be done between your current location and your destination.

This is pretty good and works nicely. Nokia's voice guided navigation is even better as it can do route recalculation while you drive, but it is a paid service and works only within cities for a few cities in India.

But be careful before you use these mapping services for any trip, they are good if you have a general idea of your routes, but sometimes they give strange results. Like when I was at vapi and I was looking for a route to pune, google maps on my phone continously showed me routes via nasik for all routes from vapi to mumbai, pune and bangalore..

Similarly the mumbai - Bangalore route shown by google maps was different from the NH4 route, which one would normally take..

Besides routing, this feature of google maps phone client is also great if you want to find out the road distance to a particullar destination. It is mostly pretty accurate and we ended up using that to find distances than depend on milestones which were not present on some parts of the route..

-- no1lives4ever

[anainar]

Originally Posted by no1lives4ever

But be careful before you use these mapping services for any trip, they are good if you have a general idea of your routes, but sometimes they give strange results. Like when I was at vapi and I was looking for a route to pune, google maps on my phone continously showed me routes via nasik for all routes from vapi to mumbai, pune and bangalore..

-- no1lives4ever

You bet! My experiences with GPS systems is that they can serve as a tool for validating/tracking the route, the homework has to be done anyways. No substitute to that. I know that I looked like a fool when my GPS system routed me through a 17 mile longer route from airport to my home in Iowa, when my friends reached,had their snacks and was waiting to make fun of me. The problem was the GPS did not bother to look for a short access to expressway behind the airport. Even when using the GPS in italy to drive, we used to look at the map and have rough idea of the directions.

Nainar

[no1lives4ever]

Originally Posted by anainar

You bet! My experiences with GPS systems is that they can serve as a tool for validating/tracking the route, the homework has to be done anyways. No substitute to that. I know that I looked like a fool when my GPS system routed me through a 17 mile longer route from airport to my home in Iowa, when my friends reached,had their snacks and was waiting to make fun of me. The problem was the GPS did not bother to look for a short access to expressway behind the airport. Even when using the GPS in italy to drive, we used to look at the map and have rough idea of the directions.

Nainar

Surprisingly, the voice guided navigation feature of the Nokia phones worked damn well for me in bombay. Except for one case where there was a blocked road, the nokia maps gave me the same routes as what the taxi drivers took or better routes in most cases.. Even finding addresses in bombay was quite good on the nokia maps app..

Unfortunately my experience with the nokia maps has not been anywhere near as good for navigation in delhi and hyderabad :-(

But even then, if you are in an unfamiliar city, the GPS units will give you a decent enough route to drive on and in places where the unit has live traffic info, it could be better than any human/paper map if implemented properly.

-- no1lives4ever

[babhishek]

google need to update their routing and also review the names of the roads

[watashi75]

Many navigation softwares allow you to choose the type of route you want - shortest or fastest. Google India maps doesn't seem to have this feature.

[lancer_rit]

Already posted about Google maps driving directions for India in one of the GPS threads ... There is some discussion here on the same lines (some issues with google maps directions etc, use with mgmaps from mobile directly) :

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techni...ml#post1239999

Cheers,

[NetfreakBombay]

Originally Posted by no1lives4ever

Surprisingly, the voice guided navigation feature of the Nokia phones worked damn well for me in bombay.

Bombay is much easier on GPS / Map systems as compared Delhi or other cities.

It is surrounded by water on all four sides and is triangular in shape. That makes routing easier (Limited options for routing).

There are 2 Expressways and two older roads (SV Road, LBS Marg) that connect pretty much the whole city.

[arin_12]

Hi,
Did any one check the new Google Map. Now you can define or choose your route as you like. Not the old rigid one, that used to provide earlier by the Map site. They are also showing multiple route...

Google Maps