The Gmaps “Pedometer” has a relatively new (2006-01-28) feature, server-side permalinks for routes. I saved my “extended” commute route to see how this worked, and it looks pretty good. The server-side permalink takes care of a limitation on TinyURL length, which hasn’t been a problem for me yet.
But the feature which really got my attention today was the elevation display–very cool! For example, check out this route near Markleeville, California. (The elevation profile should show up as a blue graph below the map. If it’s not visible, find the “Elevation:” setting in the control box and select the “large” link.) You can see that this route starts at about 5065′ then climbs steadily to about 5765′ with a relatively steep descent over the last mile. This is great info for planning a route, especially in an area you are unfamiliar with.
NB: other Google map posts on this blog are tagged google+map.
This is so cool! A Google-powered pedometer (or, in my case, a bike-o-meter). I can’t believe Joseph hasn’t blogged this already, since he’s the one who told me about this.
Once you’ve arrived at the pedometer site, choose your country (if outside the US), state, and type in your city. As on the original Google Map site you can scroll around the map and zoom in/out to focus on the area that you’ll be riding (walking, running, whatever). The app can not only save a route that you’ve mapped, it can also create a TinyURL at the same time. I used this to map the route I ride between work and home.
This app is great, but the site is made even better by the “Acknowledgements and references” section. (Scroll down below the map, the section is on the left side with all the other text.) The links to all the enabling technologies and resources are awesome!
The only problem I’ve seen so far is printing. Clicking the “Print map” link is supposed to reformat the map for printing, but on my browser it opens up the print dialog. I have to cancel the print dialog to view the reformatted map. I’m using Firefox 1.0.1 on a PowerBook G4 running Mac OS X Panther v10.3.9. It’s an easy enough workaround, and until I get around to updating Firefox I’m not going to report this as a bug.
