At the beginning of April (2007), Google Maps launched “My Maps” feature on its local search service portal. Using this, users are able to create personalized maps and save them for themselves or the general public. The tools provided allow marking of locations, comments, delineation of areas or plotting of routes using the line tool. (See our report).

This service has now been further improved. While drawing a line on the map (with the line tool), one can now see the length of the marked stretch. Once the line/route is complete, the segments are calculated and their total length added up, and displayed in the information window on the left, or with a click on the specific route. This was posted by Keith Golden, software engineer at Google Maps, in Google’s Lat Long Blog. He specifically flagged the use of this feature for the creation of maps for cycle tours or walking tours.