Additional ways to contextualize maps

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If you’ve read this blog for any length of time (and I hope you have and If you have I owe you $5), you know that I love maps. I believe that maps are incredible ways to show information and could be a great way to know someone. I’m  a huge fan of using Google Maps on the iPhone to find good what I’m looking for. The accuracy is amazing and getting better in the rural areas. (Akron, CO?) Of course nothing is perfect and I’m officially asking Google for some additional functionality. I doubt they’re listening, but here goes . . .

Map rotation – I want to be able to rotate the map to the direction I’m headed. It’s painful to try and remember that I’m not headed north and have to turn my iPhone in my hand to get a real sense of how close I am to my target. I should be at least able to rotate the map in 90 degree increments.

Real-time contextual search – As we were headed west down the highway today, my wife searched for ‘FedEx’ and it brought up several locations behind us. Not terribly helpful. The search should instead bring up FedEx locations that along our current trajectory. Not sure why they don’t do this now but I’m sure due to the magic of GPS, they know where I am.

By Michael Myers