Driving Directions from China to Priority: a Google Maps API Exploration
How does one get from China to the Priority office and how far exactly is this trip? During a recent exploration of the ‘Get Directions’ feature within Google maps, I found the answers.
Curiosity got me here. I didn’t actually have a genuine interest in lengthening my commute from 10 minutes to approximately 37 days 22 hours (each way).
Off to Google Maps to fill in my starting point (China) and destination (6700 France Avenue South #300, Minneapolis, MN 55345).
I was secretly hoping for two things:
- Upon submission, I’d receive an error (boring).
- I’d be the first person in the world to ask for such obscene directions (awesome).
I knew it was a long shot. Either way, I held my breath and clicked ‘Get Directions’.
Holy 11,013 miles, Batman!
As I skimmed the results, I was pleasantly surprised to see direction #42 : “Jet ski across the Pacific Ocean”.
Ask a silly question – I guess you get a silly response. Google. Is. Good.
Scouring the web for similar findings, I stumbled upon the Google Maps API Team Blog. In October 2009, team member, Jennifer Chye wrote, “We may not choose the most interesting route for you to travel on, but you can rest assured that if you ever want to drive from Seattle to Honolulu, we’ll … draw a straight polyline and tell you to kayak (because we don’t know if your car is watertight).”
It’s refreshing to see that Google is holding onto its sense of humor.
Awesome!