Always keep a map handy | HT Tech

Always keep a map handy

Most online mapping applications have a built-in distance calculator to help you quickly measure the road distance between any two cities or any two points within a city.

By: AMIT AGARWAL AMIT AGARWAL
| Updated on: May 25 2010, 15:31 IST

Most online mapping applications have a built-in distance calculator to help you quickly measure the road distance between any two cities or any two points within a city.

Google Maps has had a special distance measurement tool in their Labs for a while. It lets you calculate the shortest route (as the crow flies) between any two points on Earth.

There's a new distance calculator included in Bing Maps as well but it's a little different and probably a bit more useful than what you have in Google Maps.

How to get started on Bing.

To get started, go to bing.com/maps/explorer and select the "Distance Calculator" app.

You can either drag the red flag to the starting address, or for more accurate results, search the exact location before adding the flag to the map.

Now drag another flag to the destination address and Bing will immediately calculate the road distance as well as the flight distance between the two points.

Understand the icons

The airplane icon represents the air distance between the locations while the bus and car icon will give an approximate idea of the road distance. You can continue adding any number of points to your route and the total driving distance will automatically get updated.

The tool should come handy if you are curious to know how many frequent flier air miles will you earn in your next trip that spans multiple cities. Or if you want to find out how much distance there really is between Mumbai and Leh!

Amit writes a tech blog at www.labnol.org and tweets at http://twitter.com/labnol

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First Published Date: 25 May, 14:28 IST
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