Google has done it again–taken something they designed that was already good and improved it. Specifically, the Google Maps now allow you to customize your route on the fly.

You get directions from one place to another just like you always have, but now when you are presented with your route, you can click and drag on any part of the blue line showing you the way and move it someplace else. How awesome is THAT? You can plot your route and make sure you go through a particular place or use a particular street. I’ve been WAITING for some online map program to allow this kind of thing and there’s finally one that does it.

Online map programs have long allowed you to add intermediary stops along the way, so if you were traveling from Baltimore to Las Vegas and wanted to go through Atlanta, you could plot a map from Baltimore to Atlanta to Las Vegas. But NOW….

Pick any part of your route and drag it somewhere else. The blue line showing your route will change to reflect the most direct pathway. Sometimes that will be a leg sticking out from the main route, indicating that if you want to go there your best bet is to get off and back onto your route from the same place. But if you drag the line further, the most direct route going through your point will involve a different route altogether.

And even better, when you drag a point away from the route, it adds a marker there. In your step-by-step route over on the left, you have the option to EDIT that point, so you can label it whatever you like. Want to remove a marker, right above the “Edit” link is a little X just like you’re used to seeing for closing a window or application. Hit it and that change is removed from your route. And all this is on the fly.

This is a great way to plan a trip across a city where you know there’s construction. Just drag your route away from the construction zone and eventually it will flip over to another street.

You can even plot a trip across the country and VERY quickly and easily add any locations you want to stop at. I’m sure there are also other great uses I haven’t mentioned.

Give it a try! This ROCKS!!

Current music: Holst’s The Planets, by Tomita