Submitted by johnh on December 11, 2005 - 18:43.
It bugs me that nobody at all will provide us with a decent mapping site which we can script with APIs, though Yahoo Maps is, apparently, likely to include us at last fairly soon.
But in the meantime, I've discovered that Google Maps UK can do a couple of neat tricks.
First, you probably didn't know that you can feed the UK version of Google Maps an exact lat/long pair in Ireland as the 'q' parameter in its query string and have it correctly stick a pin in the right place. In this case, I'm going for the outpost of UCC which is around the corner from my house.
Second, it's unlikely that you're aware that you can add text behind that query surrounded by parentheses in order to add a description to what you've marked.
Thirdly, and most impressively of all, it's nigh-on a state secret that you can feed it two such queries and get a detailed travel plan which correctly includes knowledge about which streets are one-way, and whatnot.