Gmaps Pedometer
I’ve been using the Gmaps Pedometer to plan most of Sunday long runs in my marathon training. It’s nice because I can plan out a route ahead of time and know that it’s going to get me plenty of distance. It’s also deep-linking friendly and provides a very easy way to create TinyURLs linking to my runs.
Recently, the Gmaps Pedometer has added mile markers and a calorie counter to the UI. First, the mile marker is freakin’ AWESOME. Great addition for people who don’t have the snazzy watches that tell them how far they’ve run. It gives you the ability to set landmarks as mile markers so you know about where you’re at in your run. The calorie counter is okay as well, though you have to wonder how accurate it is given that it doesn’t take pace or hills into account (I’m assuming running 8:00 per mile burns more calories than running 15:00 per mile and running up a hill burns more calories than running on a flat).
I do have one major gripe, though. It’s slow. Once I get more than a dozen or so points plotted, the UI takes a long time to update. Even fetching map tiles from Google takes a while at that point. I’m not sure what’s causing the backup, whether it’s CPU bound trying to draw the route line or if it’s network bound trying to pull map tiles in and out. I’m guessing it’s the CPU, but I have no conclusive evidence to back that up. At some point I may crack open the JavaScript and do a little profiling.
Aside from that, however, it’s fantastic. My coworker, Jeffrey McManus, evidently has a real problem with the Google Maps API. I’m not sure how he can call it burnt wet dog hair when you can do such cool things with it that simply aren’t possible at all using the Yahoo! Maps API.
Set the API aside even and just compare the two products, Y! Maps and Google Maps. With Y! Maps I can’t even scout the routes I run since I spend a fair amount of time on the bike trails in my neighborhood. But because Google Maps comes complete with satellite imagery I’m able to see nearly all of them.
Do I prefer to eat my own company dogfood? You bet! I love using our products whenever I can. But I can’t ignore the fact that there are many areas where Google gives us a serious kicking in the ass. Kudos to the Google Maps guys and the Gmaps Pedometer person or people.
