Posted on the 13th of September, 2007
I consider myself one of the lucky ones. Getting accommodation at the University’s campus is something that the 1st-years students have certain, the second-years cannot even dream off and the third years hope for. During my second year I did get accommodation at the UniS campus and so did my friends. This year was different, not for me but for most of my friends. Almost all of my friends, are staying at nearby houses. This had as result me walking some extra meters (kilometers ?) just to visit them. My curiosity started to grow. I had to find the shortest route to get there. Thankfully there is Google Maps!
Before using Google Maps I thought I’d ask around what people thought as the shortest route to various places. Everybody had a different route in mind. Each one of them sounded shortest than the previous one. I got lot’s of opinions and that urged me to search for an online distance measuring tool. That’s where Google came in. One of the latest features of Google Maps is the ability to draw lines on the provided maps. During the line drawing a real time estimation is displayed to you at all times. The estimation is in ‘feet’ (ft), even though a ‘km/m’ estimation would be nice. The feature works as it should and finding the shortest route can be perform for any two locations in minutes. A must have tool for any student or ‘heavy pedestrians’ out there! I know it saved me a couple of kilometers each week :) Even though, walking is good for you so don’t over do it with this one! :P