You’ve finally done what I’ve been waiting for for years! I have no idea why the big boys (Google, Yahoo) have never seen the benefit that such a feature would have. Am I the only one who’s wondered time-and-again, “Ok, I’ve got to go to this destination, AND I’ve got to find a gasstation/copystore/fastfood or whatever SOMEWHERE along the way - I don’t care which one - just tell me the CLOSEST!” Have you shown this to any contacts at Google or Yahoo? If so, they should hire you right away!

I can understand that this takes some processing power, but I’m shocked how fast your solution does it, and I’m sure with the computing power of Google or Yahoo it would be FAST. So far, whenever I do a search on “search along route” on Google, I find your site, and a couple others (Map24, MultiMap). But, these other sites don’t let you type in a query - only pick from a limited list.

It’s hard to believe, but I think that your site is the only one IN THE WORLD that can do this! Does anyone know if any of the CDROM based solutions do this? Can you help me with any insight as to either: 1)why the big guys have never even talked about implementing this or 2) is there really that few users that would ever want this functionality?

Looks like the algorithms are out there for the taking also. Check out this link to a paper from Japan:
http://www.ieice.org/~de/DEWS/proc/2003/papers/2-B/2-B-04.pdf

Congratulations on an excellent job and for making me feel not so alone in wanting this feature! I hope your site stays up for a long time, as I will definitely be using this bookmarklet. (P.S. How hard would it be to add the ability be able to click on a found item in your map and select “include as middle destination”? I know Google maps now lets you insert destinations but is that available in the API?)

That is really cool to hear! Any way you could scan the drawing and
send it to me?

You may use the picture under the terms you describe as long as it is
for non-commercial uses (i.e., you’re not making any money off of it).
I’ve licensed the picture under the following license:

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/

Which says you are free to “remix” it (create a drawing of it) as long
as you do the following:
1. Attribute the picture to me (which you say you’re planning on doing).
2. Use it for non-commerical purposes.
3. License your drawing under this same license.

It sounds like your use fits under all of those categories, so feel
free to post it wherever you like.
I appreciate that you’ve asked for permission.

Luke Baker

Please email me and let me know your answer.

If this is not okay (for me to post my drawing) then just
tell me and I will only use it for my science class (and tell my
friends that I drew the praying mantis from your picture).

Thanks.