funnystrange.com

I just tried the Yahoo Map Beta and all I can say is: Oh. My. God.

You can plug in multiple destinations and get directions for every leg of the trip (it appears to be unlimited, but 4 is the most stops I've tried yet). The directions and the map are in side-by-side windows, and if you mouseover a line in the directions, that leg of the map is highlighted. If you click on a line in the directions, a close-up map opens up. You can click a button to see live traffic updates all along your route.

My only criticism, and it is a minor, teeny tiny one, is that it doesn't show you the time estimates for each leg of the trip. Just the total driving time. But you can figure it out by keeping track of the times as you add each stop.

I have a lot of driving trips planned this summer, and I've been sitting here planning them all on the Yahoo map. Having a great time figuring out where I'm going to stop on my three day drive to Houston (answer: Atlanta and New Orleans). Or whether I can afford a detour to the Feistaware factory outlet store on my trip to Louisville (answer: it will only add one day to the trip, so yes). Or where to stop on the way to and from Mt. Dora (answer unclear: try again later). Sorry, I haven't decided yet on that last one.

I wonder how much of the map info is stored on my computer and how much is it getting from the server? If I got my itinerary up on my laptop and took it with me on a road trip, would I be able to use the neato features while out of cell modem range? Almost certainly not the live traffic alerts, but the small maps for each line of the directions might still work. I'll have to test that before the Houston trip.