Web site provides shortcut for those who need directions
The other day, near the end of a two-hour ride and closing in on the distant locale of Hiram, Ohio, my brain suffered a brief power outage.
I suspect it had something to do with having to listen to the radio stations in that particular region of Ohio.
Anyway, as I looked over the driving directions we'd printed from the Internet, I fairly marveled at their precision and accuracy.
And that's when the power began to flicker.
What in the world, I wondered, did people do before MapQuest came along⢠Long, long ago -- in 1995, let's say -- how could anybody have ever found their way to Hiram, Ohio, without MapQuest?
Then the power came back on. And just in the nick of time.
I realized the answer to my question before asking it out loud and exposing myself as an idiot.
"Oh, yeah," read the cartoon thought balloon over my head.
"Maps."
MapQuest, as you already know or could easily guess, is a popular Web site that provides maps and driving directions. It's popular because you can download what you need for free -- and, unlike some other things people might like to download for free, you can do so without fear of being sued by the recording industry or investigated by the FBI.
In fact, MapQuest is so popular that it may well render traditional maps obsolete.
And thank goodness for that. Since failing the origami lesson in third-grade art class, I've spent much of my life diligently avoiding all potential map-folding situations.
But regardless of one's feelings toward the maps available at the gas station, MapQuest is truly something to behold. The idea that you can get directions from anywhere in America to anywhere in America in a matter of seconds can be summed up in two words: pretty cool.
Finding the way to Hiram, Ohio, on the Internet wouldn't seem to be nearly as easy as finding the way to pictures of Anna Kournikova.
Yet it is.
MapQuest accomplishes this through a complicated process called geocoding. All I can tell you about geocoding is that it has something to do with latitudes and longitudes -- another lesson, coincidentally, I failed in third grade.
The bottom line is that, somehow, they seem to know about every little town in America, and about every road, street and alley in those towns, and about every address along those roads, streets and alleys.
Within seconds of entering a starting point and destination, MapQuest miraculously produces step-by-step directions from Point A to Point B.
Need directions from Plum to Cranberry?
No problem.
Oakmont to Pine?
No problem.
New Kensington to New Brighton?
No problem.
West Leechburg to East Brady?
Probably not a problem.
The numbered directions provide street names, highways and exit numbers. They indicate which way to turn, how many miles you can expect to travel on a given road and even whether that road might be unpaved. They also give you the total mileage for your trip and an estimated driving time, which you may or may not interpret as a personal challenge.
The directions are so remarkably specific, in fact, that it might be fun to test MapQuest and see what route it would recommend for getting to your neighbors' house across the street.
1. Start out going southeast through your front door
2. Stay straight through front yard (unpaved)
3. Bear right to avoid the freshly planted rhododendrons
4. Look both ways
5. Cross street
6. Merge onto neighbors' sidewalk
7. Make left onto porch (carpeted)
Total estimated time: 26 seconds
Total distance: 63 steps
Years from now, I imagine that future generations will wonder how we ever managed to find our way around before MapQuest.
I can understand that sort of curiosity.
I'm still trying to figure out how previous generations changed the channel on the television.
