

Why isn't the scale on Google Maps detachable? - j053003
http://www.41latitude.com/post/572900380/google-maps-bar-scale

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justinl
There's a gadget to measure the distance between two points in the Google Maps
Directory. Works as advertised, and is also more precise than the bar scale.

[http://maps.google.com/gadgets/directory?synd=mpl&url=ht...](http://maps.google.com/gadgets/directory?synd=mpl&url=http://www.google.com/mapfiles/mapplets/distance/distance.xml)

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j053003
Casual users are unlikely to "discover" this

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Dave-Zimm
I actually really like this idea. When I was a Geology major, we measured
distances on topographic maps using the map's bar scale. I think many people,
especially older people, think to measure distances on maps this way. It just
seems more natural.

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ynniv
Would it scale itself based on the latitude you dropped it at? Could you
rotate it, and would it still be the correct scale? Does it display the length
of the straight line segment that you placed, or the shortest path between the
endpoints (Great Arc)?

I suspect that features are only added for the 80% case (ie, 80% of users
would use it). There is too long a list of more important things missing or
wrong with Google Maps for a random blogger to presume that the people on the
Maps team hasn't thought of this.

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andrewvc
Because the correct feature would be a line tool that tells you the distance
between two points. You can actually use gmaps-pedometer to do this (set it to
straight line mode): <http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/> , it'll also show you an
elevation graph.

For most road trips, the proper tool is to plan a route, which takes into
account the curves of actual roads.

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j053003
While I like this solution, I doubt most casual users would ever "discover"
this

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andrewvc
Agreed, my point was google should just integrate straight lines into maps,
not make a drag-able scale.

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pedrokost
There's no need for a detachable scale. If you need the distance between two
points right click and select 'distance from here' and then 'distance to here'
for the destination point. Plus it measure the actual distance on road (car or
walking or public transport), while the scale can only be used for air
distance - which is shorter than the real distance of travel.

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Dave-Zimm
I never realized you could double-click on the maps. I doubt many non-techie
people know this.

Also, there have been several occasions where I've specially wanted to know
the air distance between two points on Google Maps. As it is now, there's no
good (non-hack) way of doing this.

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dwwoelfel
I'm sure there a millions of little things Google hasn't thought of.

I wish they would tell me how old someone is when their birthday pops up on my
calendar. Or how long a couple has been married when their anniversary pops
up.

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Dave-Zimm
I'm sure you were being cynical, but those are actually great ideas.

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dwwoelfel
I'm not cynical -- I'm sincere. I even sent a little note to the Google
Calendar team with a request for the feature.

In fact, I thought my comment would be filled with replies containing little
improvements others had identified.

