Hey Robert,

> For reasons known only to those in Googleland,
> G-Maps will happily serve up across-the-pond
> directions between the UK and USA, but no other
> pan-Atlantic destinations.

Last I checked, Toronto was not yet a part of the US. :-)

James.

James:

Didn't you get the memo? We annexed Ontario last night. It was just a formality -- all the great Canucks* move here eventually anyway, why make them go through customs?

Note to my enraged Canadian readers: I'm just kidding. Thanks for catching my slip on the keyboard, James.

- rxc

* Neil Young, Peter Jennings, Rich Little, Alex Trebek, Pam Anderson... have I missed anyone?

(see http://www.canadians.ca/top20.htm)

I was able to get a route from the USA to Trier, Germany with no problem. I'll be swimming from New Jersey to a ferry port in France.

Yes, it sounds like some programmer was having some fun, but why did he/she assume that people would SWIM across the Atlantic Ocean? After all, the person didn't WALK from Toronto. Google should have assumed a motorboat.

I showed the Google Map to my co-worker, and his immediate question - "What stroke did the swimmer use?"

I suspect this is a fairly new "feature" - I don't recall seeing it in previous versions. Good for the person who implemented it; glad to see that the corporations haven't turned completely stodgy.

My guess: There's a company in New Jersey (and possibly another in Canada) that runs a car-ferry. Maps have been known to show ferry routes as roads before - so I'm guessing it's possible to drive from the U.S. to England - but you don't put 3000+ miles of the journey on your odometer.

When we were made aware of this last week, in typical professional corporate fashion, we made a game out of it. See who could come up with the *farthest* distance that Google Maps would compute. So far, we've come up with Fairbanks, AK to Moscow, Russia (including the little trans-atlantic dip in the Pond). Distance: 9,751 miles, Driving Time: 33 days, 13 hours. So we're throwing down the gauntlet: Can any one of you do better? :-)

Interesting how it "loops" though France. It must be a French conspiracy!!!

Zoom in a bit and you can go 10,112 miles from Kachemak City, AK to Nekrasovka, just east of Moscow, in about 33 days 21 hours.

Yeah, I'm bored.

or to Vardo, Norway - 10,541 mi - in about 34 days 6 hours.

Have fun!

How about Fairbanks, Alaska to Sodankylä, Lappi Finland? 9,922 mi (about 33 days 16 hours)!

How about

Unalaska, Alaska 99685 -> Vardo, Norway
11,521 mi (about 36 days 7 hours)

Not half the problem! Did several google-earth maps the other day and found that most of the maps were only about 3-5 years in arrears.

Guess Google couldn't afford up-to-date maps.

I got 10,109 miles from Basargin Rd., Kachenak Silo, AK, to the Kremlin, Moscow, Russia. I suspect you could get a little more distance by choosing addresses in the eastern Moscow suburbs, and trying to get a little further away from it all in Alaska.

Google seems to be able to do travel along connected roads, naturally, and the road system seems to end in eastern Europe and thereabouts, heading east. While there are roads in India, they are not linked to the west. The one trans-Atlantic link in Google Maps is between Long Wharf in Boston, MA, and the Bassin de la Manche at Le Havre, in France. It appears to be the only link in the system, as I had to go the same way to get to Ireland, when had I actually been swimming, I probably would have driven to somewhere like Newfoundland and swum direct to Ireland. It may have been longer in distance, but the swim (at about 5 mph; 29 days, 0 hours, not allowing for having to carry the car while swimming) would have been shorter, and so the whole trip quicker.

I'm looking forward to a Google Maps 'road' from Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia, so I can get in a decent swim to visit family in Australia. I should note that it did give me directions for how to get from Ohio to my mother-in-law's house in Northern Ireland, even though she lives along a country road that isn't on Google Maps yet! The power of the Postcode!

Cantwell, Alaska to Novosibirsk, Russia... 11,975 miles in about 35 days 7 hours... !!!

Unalaska, AK -> Novosibirsk, Russia. 13,147 mi (about 37 days 13 hours)

A little farther:
Unalaska, AK -> Novokuznetsk, Russia
13,441 mi (about 37 days 19 hours)

Irkutsk, Russia to Unalaska, AK - 23,009 KM.

How interesting, then, that Google can't get me from San Diego to Tijuana!

How could you leave William Shatner off your list of famous Canadians who moved here? Khaaan!

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Extremely sad for me to write you these words,i am a boy of 17years of ages from Benin, but i live in ivory coast, if you see that i wrote you people, no wander it is that i need your help. It is an opened pit suffering which arosed in my life since April last year when i lost my mother without knowing my father. But have head about him once as one of the vetrance sent by Nigeria police officer which have been knocked dawn to deth in "Liberia war".My presence was driven away from the school.But today i have introduced myself into the internet so that God merci can rain on me through you , because it is even difficult for me to even eat sometimes.Please and please may you kindly open your heart to help the instantly needy boy of your sides, because i do not even know what to become in the future without your help.