Last week’s column generated a lot of email questions and comments. I did not realize there were a lot of Google Maps and Waze users out there. Some people had never heard of Waze and now are trying it out. Let me know how you like or dislike it as you experiment.
One person brought to my attention that there do not appear to be many Waze users. My experience has been that it depends on where you are traveling. There are many more Wazers in big cities and fewer in the smaller areas.
For the uninitiated, Waze shows small icons for other Waze users on the map. You can see when other Wazers are nearby. However, if you search for it online you find that Wazers on the map do not update in real time. Their icons and Waze username may be delayed by five minutes or more. They appear to sit still until you drive past them and they vanish off of the bottom of the map. They may also vanish and reappear later in a different location. I have read this is done for several of reasons. One is that it would take considerably more bandwidth to provide live updates. Another is they do not want you to be distracted from your driving as you look around trying to figure out which is the other Waze driver. Also, since it is not live, people cannot be stalked using Waze.
Several wrote about what I have recently heard called the "lazy" search. Say you are out of the area and want seafood for dinner. In both Google Maps and Waze you can search "seafood restaurant" and find a list of seafood serving places to eat. The reason I say, "serving" and not "seafood restaurants" is that it may be a burger joint that also has a fish sandwich, so buyer beware. You can also search for a type of place near another place. For instance, "steak restaurant" near XYZ Hotel" and you would get a good local listing around your hotel. Pretend you went to a place to eat years ago and all you can remember is it was near 17th Street. Try search for a "restaurant near 17th Street" and chances are very good that you will find it quickly, if it is still open. Another neat feature a reader gave me; when searching for places like the above if you scroll down you can find Filters. You can filter by "currently open," "ratings" and several others when available.
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Search for, “Pizza, Charlottesville, VA” |
Search for, “Vineyards, Waynesboro, VA” |
Search for, “Burger Joints” near me. |
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Waze |
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Waze |
Sabrina wrote about a feature I had not known about before. If you watched people in the olden days use a map, some would hold it with North always point up. Others would twist and turn the map along the way so they were always looking the way they were moving. Well Google Maps allows this too. See what happens if you tap the compass icon on your map while you are driving. There you go, either North always up or you are diving the way you are looking (the default setting).
Have fun but please pay more attention to the road than your maps!
