Leading the way

Getting lost was never this much fun. Nor was exploring alternate routes to a destination.

Getting lost was never this much fun. Nor was exploring alternate routes to a destination. As we wander through streets noting down little details that lend character to our towns and cities and look at what is brought together as a world map,the World Wide Web opens numerous options for us and many others to map the length and breadth of the world – one street at a time,all with one click. This thanks to umpteen websites and mobiles playing host to online maps.

Online maps are a great way to see panoramas of streets from all over the world and the improved tools on website including overlaying user photos and the ability to view Street View in full screen gives it a new prospective, Manik Gupta,Geo Products Lead,Japan & Asia Pacific,Google,tells us with Google Earths Street View navigation,you can travel to a new place just by double clicking on the place or object you would like to see. Here,while you can enjoy a three-dimensional view and shuttle from one side of a river to another to see a faraway building. This is a great way to travel virtually to several places all around the world, Gupta talks about millions of users,who regularly use the services of the website that maps 210 countries and has high resolution imagery coverage for over half the worlds population.

From finding hotels,restaurants,ATMs,banks and several places of interest to noting down transit directions to places of interest,theres lots one can do. Via this,friends travelling together are able to even make spontaneous plans by tracking each others locations on their cell phones, chips in Rahul Kapoor,a BCom final year student,who via Blackberrys Global Positing System posts the position map to his friends. My friends can also track me to the last five meters if they want, he tells us.

While,Divyanshu Bansal,a second year student of Department of Chemical Engineering,logs on to http://www.bing.com/maps to view suggested itineraries for several cities around the world and read through their travellers guide to zero down on the places to visit. We have also submitted details of our last trip on the site for others to view, he shares.

Most of these services,available for free,give one the option to navigate 360 degree street-level imagery of cities. Mapsofindia.com is my guide, says travel enthusiast Sumit Dua,an engineer,who likes the segregate sections for tracking,places,hill stations,wildlife sanctuaries,et al. With these,you can recognize places even without visiting, says Dua who finds websites like these very helpful when printed maps havent been updated for decades by commercial or government mapmakers.

But for those who are prone to losing their way on the road,mapmyIndia navigator helps you take all the right turns. The gadget uses satellites to determine your current location so you always know where you are and where you are headed. With this theres no need to roll down your window,and ask strangers for directions, mentions Aditya Bajaj,a businessman who by now just punches in the destination across India and reaches without delay or hassle. Sounds like a smooth ride to us!

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