Across the Pond

Ever gotten bad directions from one of the online map services like Google Maps or Mapquest? Well, Google Maps takes that to the next level with a little goof. The joke is generating all kinds of comments on Digg.com (with 5,930 "diggs") and other sites. I won't spoil it for you. Go to Google Maps; click on Directions; type New York to London. Check out No. 23 on the list. It works for other cities, too. It strikes my jaded mind as a little too wink-wink, nudge-nudge, we're Google and we're so clever ... but your mileage may vary. Maybe I'm still smarting from the time I printed Yahoo directions, looking for a bar in San Francisco, and spent the next hour walking 20 blocks to find the club's real location. I even ran into -- and became fast friends with -- a couple wandering around the wrong neighborhood with their own version of the bogus Yahoo map.