Its been almost 4-6 months Yahoo launched its Mapping solutions for India. There were speculations that MapMyIndia provided the map data to Yahoo India. In recent updates, Yahoo Maps India has introduced driving directions for India. The feature is available in all over India and is not specific to metro cities.
Previously I talked about a website RouteGuru which provides driving directions based on landmarks. Well, Yahoo Maps India has included that feature (landmarks) into its driving directions. So now that makes it easier for people in India to follow the directions. No body (mostly) knows the highway names. Also the directions have included the feature where you can specify the "via" option. So for example, if you want to go from Andheri West to Juhu via Mumbia, you can do that with yahoo India map directions.
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But here is what I found, the site doesn't have proper "help" section where it says how to use driving directions. You can click on a map and right click to say "Directions from here" or "Directions to here". But the right click menu doesn't provide an option to specify "Via". So the way to actually find out the directions is
- In the search box type in "FROM start address TO end address VIA address" and hit enter.
- You will see the route plotted on the map with the textual directions on the right.
- The textual directions will have landmarks information as you can see in the image above.
(For metro cities, the textual direction will also include estimated AutoRickshaw fare (works in Mumbai). It didn't show fare in Ahmedabad though.)
Don't rely too much on this directions though. Its still in its Beta and the route calculations are not the exactly best and in the case below are "worst". Check out the directions that I printed out for Ahmedabad. Its way way off.
Even though its not the best directions, I would say its a good start. Yahoo has made great efforts to put this together. This will sure trigger Google India Maps to start thinking about providing directions for India cities. So wait for few months and we will have great driving directions applications in India. This is the right moment to tap into GPS market for India I believe.
So check out Yahoo India Driving Directions and lets talk about your experiences.
So check out Yahoo India Driving Directions and lets talk about your experiences.
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