Google Maps

Shopping on line can be easy, simple and save you lots of money. It can also take a lot of your time, frustrate you, and result in unwanted purchases. Now the same can be said for regular high street shopping, but with the vast opportunity presented by the Internet it will pay you to spend a few minutes reading this and understanding how to better optimize your Google Maps shopping experience:

1. Compare - without doubt the biggest advantage that the Google Maps offers shoppers today is the ability to compare thousands of Google Maps at a time. This is a great thing, but not necessarily all the time! Too much can be daunting at times so take advantage of the great comparison sites and where possible let them do the hard work for you.

2. Research - if it has been said it will be on the internet. Ignorance is no longer a justifiable reason for buying the wrong thing. Take the time to research in detail everything that you could possible want to know about

3. Testimonials - don't know anybody that has bought a Google Maps? Wrong! If the Google Maps is good the internet will let you know. Use the Internet as a friend and get testimonials before you buy.

4. Questions - Got a question about Google Maps then search the Forums, FAQ's, Blogs etc. Don't be afraid to ask .....

5. Reputation - Never heard of the company selling Google Maps? Don't worry, no reason why you should know every company in the world, but you know someone that does! Use the internet to find out what people are saying about Google Maps and build up a picture of their reputation for sales, returns, customer service, delivery etc.

6. Returns - still worried that even after all of the above your Google Maps wont be what you want? Check out the returns policy. There is so much competition now that someone, somewhere is bound to offer the terms that you are comfortable with.

7. Feedback - happy with your Google Maps then let people know, after all you are depending on others people input in your buying decision, so why not give a little back.

8. Security - check for the yellow padlock on the Google Maps site before you buy, and the s after http:/ /i.e. https:// = a secure site

9. Contact - got a question about Google Maps, or want to leave a comment then check out the sites contact page. Reputable companies have them and respond.

10. Payment - ready to pay for your Google Maps, then use your credit card or PayPal! Be aware of companies that don't accept them, there may be genuine reasons but given the huge amount of choice you have when buying online there is no reason at all not to buy via credit card or PayPal.

{{Infobox Website| name = Google Maps| logo = | screenshot = | caption = Screenshot of Google Maps showing a route from Toronto to Ottawa on the 400-Series highways.]| language = #International| registration = no| owner = Google service application and technology provided by [Google that powers many map-based services including the Google Maps website, #Google Ride Finder and embedded maps on third-party websites via the Google Maps API. It offers street maps, a route planner, and an urban business locator for #Coverage details around the world.

A related product is Google Earth, a standalone program for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux which offers enhanced globe-viewing features.

Features Google Maps features a map that can be navigated by dragging the computer mouse, or using the mouse wheel to zoom in (mouse wheel up) or out (mouse wheel down) to show detailed street information. Users may enter an address (geography), Intersection (road) or general area to quickly find it on the map.

Search results can be restricted to a certain area, thanks to Google Local. For example, someone can enter a query such as " Waffles in Ottawa" to find restaurants serving waffles near the city. This can be used to find a wide variety of businesses, such as theatres, restaurants and hotels.

Like many other map services, Google Maps allows for the creation of driving Navigation. It gives the user a step-by-step list of how to get to their destination, along with an estimate of the time required to reach it and the distance between the two locations. Since July 2007, it has been possible to drag a point on the route to another location, adding a waypoint, and instantly showing the revised route and length while dragging.

Google Maps offers four viewing modes by default: Map (topographic and street map), Satellite (satellite and high-resolution aerial photographs), Hybrid (Street maps overlaid on satellite and high-resolution aerial photographs) and Street View, this feature was introduced on May 30, 2007 (ground level 360 degree view of certain streets).

The "link to this page" link on each Google Maps map targets a URL which can be used to find the location on the map at a later time. The latitude and longitude can be used as input to NASA World Wind or TerraServer-USA, which in some cases have higher-resolution imagery.

Satellite view in San Francisco, CA

Google Maps provides high-resolution satellite images for most urban areas in Canada and the United States (including Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands) as well as parts of New Zealand, Australia, Egypt, France, Germany, Iran, Iceland, Italy, Republic of Ireland, Iraq, Japan, the Bahamas, Bermuda, Kuwait, Mexico, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and many other countries. Google Maps also covers many cities including Moscow, Istanbul, and most of India.

All the images shown in Google Maps' satellite mode are at least a year old and in some places like New Jersey date back to 2001. Various governments have complained about the potential for terrorists to use the satellite images in planning attackshttp://www.abc.net.au/news/indepth/featureitems/s1432602.htm. Google has blurred some areas for security (mostly in the United States), including the U.S. Naval Observatory area (where the official residence of the Vice President of the United States is located), and until recently, the United States Capitol and the White House (which formerly featured erased housetop). Other well-known government installations are visible including Area 51 in the Nevada desert.

With the introduction of an easily pannable and searchable mapping and satellite imagery tool, Google's mapping engine prompted a surge of interest in satellite imagery. Sites such as Google Sightseeing and Virtual Globetrotting were established which feature satellite images of interesting natural and man-made landmarks, including such novelties as "large type" writing visible in the imagery, as well as famous stadia and unique earth formations.

Although Google uses the word "satellite", some of the high-resolution imagery is aerial photography rather than satellite imagery. Google Earth FAQ (Google Earth and Google Maps use the same imagery)

Implementation Like other Google web applications, a large amount of JavaScript was used to create Google Maps. As the user drags the map, the grid squares are downloaded from the server and displayed to the user. When a user searches for a business, the location is pin-pointed with a red pin, which is actually a transparent PNG placed over the map. The technique of providing greater user-interactivity by performing asynchronous network requests with Javascript and XML has recently become known as Ajax (programming). Specifically, Google Maps was built using the AjaXSLT framework.

The GIS (Geographic Information System) data used in Google Maps are provided by Tele Atlas and NAVTEQ,http://blumenthals.com/blog/?p=75#comments while the small patches of high-resolution satellite imagery are largely provided by DigitalGlobe and its QuickBird satellite, with some imagery also from government sources. The main global imagery base called NaturalVue was derived from Landsat 7 imagery by MDA Federal (formerly EarthSat). This global image base provides the essential foundation for the entire application.

Extensibility and customization

As the Google Maps code is almost entirely JavaScript and XML, some end-users reverse-engineered the tool and produced client-side scripts and server-side hooks which allowed a user or website to introduce expanded or customised features into the Google Maps interface.

Using the core engine and the map/satellite images hosted by Google, such tools can introduce custom location icons, location coordinates and metadata, and even custom map image sources into the Google Maps interface. Some of the more well-known of these "Google Maps Hacks" include tools that display locations of Craigslist rental properties,http://www.housingmaps.com/ student apartment rentals,http://www.gooffcampus.com/http://www.ratemyapartments.com and local map Chicago crime datahttp://www.chicagocrime.org/ (or check Misdaadkaart.nl showing crimes of one entire country).http://www.misdaadkaart.nl/ Other Mashup (web application hybrid) visualise positions of trainshttp://www.mackers.com/projects/dartmaps/ or use the technology for map-based games.http://www.placespotting.com/ The script-insertion tool Greasemonkey provides a large number of client-side scripts to customize Google Maps data, and the mygmaps.com website provides an interface for easily adding your own set of locations and viewing them on Google Maps.

Combined with photo sharing websites such as Flickr, a phenomenon called "memory maps" emerged. Using copies of the Keyhole satellite photos of their home towns or other favorite places, the users take advantage of image annotation features to provide personal histories and information regarding particular points of the area.

Google Maps API Google created the Google Maps API to facilitate developers integrating Google Maps into their web sites with their own data points. It is a free service, which currently does not contain ads, but Google states in their terms of use that they reserve the right to display ads in the future.

By using the Google Maps API you can embed the full Google Maps on an external web site. Start by creating an API Key, it will be bound to the web site and directory you enter when creating the key. Creating your own map interface involves adding the Google JavaScript code to your page, and then using Javascript functions to add points to the map.

When the API first launched, it lacked the ability to geocoding addresses, requiring you to manually add points in (latitude, longitude) format. This has since been rectified.

At the same time as the release of the Google Maps API, Yahoo! released their own Maps API. Both were released to coincide with the O'Reilly Web 2.0 Conference. Yahoo! Maps lacks international support, but included a geocoder in the first release.

As of October 2006, Google Gadgets' Google maps implementation is much easier to use with just the need of one line of script. The drawback is that it is not as customizable as the full API.

In late 2006, Yahoo began a campaign to upgrade their maps, to compete better with Google Local and other online map companies. Several of the maps used in a survey were similar to Google maps.

Google Maps actively promotes the commercial use of their API. One of its earliest adopters at large scale are real estate mashup sites. Google's case study is about Nestoria, a property search engine in the UK and Spain. Another adopter is property, jobs and cars search engine, trovit.

Google Maps for Mobile In late 2006, Google introduced a Java applet called Google Maps for Mobile, which is intended to run on any Java based phone or mobile device. Most, if not all, web based features are available from within the application. in-depth review There is also a full-featured version, including GPS Integration, available for Windows Mobile PocketPCs and smartphones.

Google Maps parameters In Google Maps, the URL parameters may be tweaked to offer views and options not normally available through on-screen controls.

For instance, the maximum zoom level offered is normally 18, but if higher-resolution images are available, changing the z parameter, which sets the zoom level, will allow the user to access them, as in this view of elephants or this view of people at a well using the parameter z=23.

A list of Google Maps parameters and their descriptions is available.

Development history until recent issues Google Maps was first announced on the Google Blog on February 8 2005. Google Maps announcement on Google Blog. and was located at http://maps.google.com/. It originally only supported users of Internet Explorer and Mozilla web browsers, but support for Opera (web browser) and Safari (web browser) was added on February 25, 2005. Currently (July 1 2006) Internet Explorer 6.0+, Firefox 0.8+, Safari 1.2.4+, Netscape 7.1+, Mozilla 1.4+, and Opera 8.02+ are supported. Google Maps Help It was in beta for six months before becoming part of Google Local on October 6 2005.

In early April 2005, an alternate view was activated to show #Satellite images of the area displayed.
In late April 2005, Google created #Google Ride Finder using Google Maps.
In late June 2005, Google released the #Google Maps API.
In mid July 2005, Google began Google Maps and Google Local services for Japan, including road maps.
On July 22 2005, Google released "Hybrid View". Together with this change, the satellite image data was converted from Plate carrée projection to Mercator projection, which makes for a less distorted image in the temperate climes latitudes.
In July 2005, in honor of the thirty-sixth anniversary of the Apollo Moon landing, #Google Moon was launched.
In September 2005, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Google Maps quickly updated its satellite imagery of New Orleans to allow users to view the extent of the flooding in various parts of that city. (Oddly, in March 2007, imagery showing hurricane damage was replaced with images from before the storm; this replacement was not made on Google Earth, which still uses post-Katrina imagery.)
As of January 2 2006, Google Maps features road maps for the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan, and certain cities in the Republic of Ireland. Coverage of the area around Turin was added in time for the 2006 Winter Olympics.
On January 23 2006, Google Maps was updated to use the same satellite image database as Google Earth.
On March 12 2006, #Google Marshttp://mars.google.com/ was launched, which features a draggable map and satellite imagery of the planet Mars.
In late April 2006, Google Local was merged into the main Google Maps site.
On April 3 2006, version 2 of the Maps API was released.
On June 11 2006, Google added geocoding capabilities to the API, satisfying what it called the most requested feature for this service.
On June 14 2006, Google Maps for Enterprise was officially launched. As a commercial service, it features intranet and advertisement-free implementations.
Beginning in February 2007, buildings and Subway (rail) stops are displayed in Google Maps "map view" for parts of New York City, Washington, D.C., London, San Francisco, and some other cities.
On February 28 2007, Google Traffic info was officially launched to automatically include real-time traffic flow conditions to the maps of 30 major cities of the United States.
On May 29 2007, Google driving directions support was added to the Google Maps API.
On May 30 2007, Street View was added. It gives ground level 360 degree view of streets in some major cities in United States.
On July 31 2007, support for hCard was announced; Google Maps search results will now output the hCard microformat.

Coverage details The specific features of Google Maps vary by country.http://maps.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=16634 Maps, local business search, street-level search, and driving directions are fully functional for

Australia
Belgium
Canada
China (beta via ditu.google.com)
France
Germany
Hong Kong
Netherlands
Ireland
Italy
Spain
United Kingdom (local search only functional via maps.google.co.uk)
United States

Maps, local business search, and street-level search are fully functional for

Japan

Google Local Business Center for business owners to add listings to Google Maps is available in

Australia
Canada
China
Japan
France
Germany
Italy
Spain
United Kingdom
United States (is currently also the only country with street view)

Maps only are fully functional for

Afghanistan (highway coverage only)
African continent (street coverage in select major cities; highway coverage elsewhere)
Andorra
Antigua & Barbuda (street names in cities, street alignments elsewhere)
Aruba
Austria
Bahamas (street coverage in Nassau only)
Barbados (street names in cities, street alignments elsewhere)
Belgium
Belize (street alignments in Belize City and Belmopan; highway coverage elsewhere)
Belarus (highway coverage only)
Bhutan (highway coverage only)
Bolivia (street coverage in La Paz only)
Bosnia and Herzegovina (highway coverage only)
Brazil (street coverage - major cities and select other areas; highway coverage elsewhere)
Brunei (highway coverage only)
Bulgaria (highway coverage only)
Chile (street coverage in major cities; highway coverage elsewhere)
Cambodia (highway coverage only)
China (highway and passenger rail coverage only)
Colombia (street coverage in major cities; highway coverage elsewhere)
Costa Rica (street coverage in San José; highway coverage elsewhere)
Croatia (street coverage - major cities; highway coverage elsewhere)
Cuba (street coverage in Havana, highway and rail coverage elsewhere)
Czech Republic
Denmark
Ecuador (street coverage in major cities; highway coverage elsehere)
El Salvador(street coverage in San Salvador, highway coverage elsewhere)
Estonia
Finland
Gibraltar
Greece (street coverage for most cities, highway coverage elsewhere)
Grenada (street names in cities, street alignments elsewhere)
Guatemala (street alignments in major cities; highway coverage elsewhere)
Haiti (street coverage in Port-au-Prince; highway coverage elsewhere)
Honduras (street coverage in Tegucigalpa; highway coverage elsewhere)
Hungary
India (street coverage for most cities, highway coverage elsewhere)
Indonesia (highway coverage only)
Iran (highway coverage only)
Iraq (highway coverage only)
Jamaica (street names in cities, street alignments elsewhere)
Kazahkstan (highway coverage only)
Kyrgyzstan (highway coverage only)
Latvia (street coverage - cities, highway coverage elsewhere)
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macedonia (highway coverage only)
Mauritius (highway coverage only)
Mexico (street coverage in major cities, highway coverage elsewhere)
Moldova (highway coverage only)
Monaco
Mongolia (highway coverage only)
Montenegro (highway coverage only)
Myanmar (Burma) (highway coverage only)
New Zealand
Nicaragua (street coverage in Managua; highway coverage elsewhere)
Norway
Oman (highway coverage only)
Pakistan (highway coverage only)
Panama (street coverage in Colón and Panama City; highway coverage elsewhere)
Papua New Guinea (highway coverage only)
Paraguay (street coverage in Asunción only)
Peru (street coverage in Lima only)
Philippines (highway coverage only)
Poland
Portugal
Réunion (highway coverage only)
Romania (highway coverage only)
Russia (street coverage – major cities, highway coverage elsewhere)
Saint Kitts & Nevis (street names in cities, street alignments elsewhere)
Saint Lucia (street names in cities, street alignments elsewhere)
San Marino
Saudi Arabia (highway coverage only)
Serbia (highway coverage only)
Singapore
Slovakia
Slovenia
Sri Lanka (highway coverage only)
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Thailand
Trinidad & Tobago (street names in cities, street alignments elsewhere)
Turkey (street names in Istanbul, Ankara, and Bursa only, street alignments shown in cities, highway coverage elsewhere)
Turkmenistan (highway coverage only)
Ukraine (highway coverage only)
United Arab Emirates (street names in Dubai and Abu Dhabi areas only, street alignments shown in cities, highway coverage elsewhere)
Uruguay (street coverage in Montevideo metro; highway coverage elsewhere)
Uzbekistan (highway coverage only)
Venezuela (street coverage in major cities; highway coverage elsewhere)
Vietnam (highway coverage only)
Yemen (highway coverage only)

Satellite imagery of varying resolution is available worldwide.

International Google Maps is currently localized in 17 countries.{| class="wikitable sortable"! Country! Code! Link|-| | AU| http://maps.google.com.au|-| | BE| http://maps.google.be|-| | CA| http://maps.google.ca|-| | CN| http://ditu.google.cn|-| | DK| http://maps.google.dk|-| | FI| http://maps.google.fi|-| | FR| http://maps.google.fr|-| | DE| http://maps.google.de|-| | IT| http://maps.google.it|-| | JP| http://maps.google.co.jp|-| | NL| http://maps.google.nl|-| | NO| http://maps.google.no|-| | RU| http://maps.google.ru|-| | ES| http://maps.google.es|-| | SE| http://maps.google.se|-| | UK| http://maps.google.co.uk|-| | COM| http://maps.google.com|}

Google's use of Google Maps The main Google Maps site includes a local search feature, finding businesses of a certain category in a geographic area.

Google Ditu Google Ditu (谷歌地图 lit. "Google Map") was released to the public on February 9, 2007, and replaced the old Google Bendi (谷歌本地 lit. "Google Local"). This is the Chinese localised Google Maps and Google Local services only cover China.

There are some differences in frontier alignments between Google Ditu and Google Maps. On Google Maps, sections of the Chinese border with India, Pakistan and Tajikistan are shown with dotted lines, indicating areas or frontiers in dispute. However, Google Ditu shows the Chinese frontier strictly according to Chinese claims with no "dotted lines" anywhere. For example the area now administered by India called Arunchal Pradesh (referred to as "South Tibet" by Chinese official sources) is shown inside the Chinese frontier by Google Ditu. Google Ditu also shows Taiwan and the surrounding islands as part of China.

Google Moon

In honor of the 36th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing on July 20, 1969, Google took public domain imagery of the Moon, integrated it into the Google Maps interface, and created a tool called Google Moon.http://moon.google.com By default this tool, with a reduced set of features, also displays the points of landing of all Apollo program spacecraft to land on the Moon. It also included an easter egg (virtual), displaying a Swiss cheese design at the highest zoom level, which Google has since removed. Google Moon was linked from a special commemorative version of the Google logo displayed at the top of the main Google search page for July 20, 2005 (UTC) webarchive.org.

Google Mars Google Mars provides a visible satellite imagery view, like Google Moon, as well as infrared imagery and shaded relief (elevation). Users can toggle between the elevation, visible, and infrared data, in the same manner as switching between map, satellite, and hybrid modes of Google Maps. In collaboration with NASA scientists at Arizona State University, Google has provided the public with data collected from two NASA Mars missions, Mars Global Surveyor and 2001 Mars Odyssey.http://www.google.com/mars/about.html At present, the Google Earth desktop client cannot access the data, but the feature is in development.

It is currently not known if Google Mars will become a standalone program.

NASA has made available a number of Google Earth desktop client maps for Mars at http://onmars.jpl.nasa.gov/.

Google Ride Finder

Google launched an experimental Google Maps-based tool called Ride Finder, tapping into in-car GPS units for a selection of participating taxicab and limousine services. The tool displays the current location of all supported vehicles of the participating services in major US cities, including Chicago and San Francisco on a Google Maps street map.

Google Transit

In December 2005, Google launched Google Transit. This is a web application (listed in Google Labs), that plans a trip using public transportation options. Google Transit launched with support for Portland, Oregon. Information for Eugene, Oregon; Honolulu, Hawaii; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Seattle, Washington; and Tampa, Florida was added on September 27 2006, with more added since. The service calculates route, transit time and cost, and can compare the trip to one using a car.

Google My Maps In April 2007, My Maps was a new feature added to Google's local search maps. My Maps lets users and businesses such as weather.com and Zvents create their own map by positioning markers, polylines and polygons onto a map. The interface is a straightforward overlay on the map. A set of eighty-four pre-designed markers is available, ranging from bars and restaurants to webcam and earthquake symbols. Polyline and Polygon colour, width and opacity are selectable. Maps modified using My Maps can be saved for later viewing and made public (or marked as private), but cannot be printed.

Each element added to a My Map has an editable tag. This tag can contain text, rich text or HTML. Embeddable video and other content can be included within the HTML tag.

Upon the launch of My Maps there was no facility to embed the created maps into a webpage or blog. A few independent websites have now produced tools to let users embed maps and add further functionality to their maps. This has been resolved with version 2.78.

Google Street View On May 25 2007, Google released Street View, a new feature of Google Maps which provides 360° panoramic street-level views of Chicago, Denver, Las Vegas, Nevada, Miami, New York City, Orlando, Florida, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Arizona-Tucson, Pittsburgh, Portland, Oregon, San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, Houston, and their surrounding metropolitan areas. This feature has raised some privacy concerns, with views found to show men leaving strip clubs, protesters at an abortion clinic, sunbathers in bikinis, and other activities. Google maintains that the photos were taken from public property. Before launching the service, Google removed photos of domestic violence shelters, and allows users to flag inappropriate or sensitive imagery for Google to review and remove. The process for requesting that an image be removed is not trivial. Images of potential break-ins, sunbathers and individuals entering adult bookstores have, for example, remained active and these images have been widely republished.

Google has plans in the near future to add other U.S. cities to Street View, including Richmond, Virginia, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Jacksonville and Seattle. It is not known when other parts of the U.S. and world will be included.

Google plans to eventually release street view for Canada cities, but due to Canadian privacy laws, faces and license plates will be blurred after Canadian federal privacy commissioner Jennifer Stoddart raised concerns about the program breaching Canada's privacy laws. . Canadian cities that Google plans to include are: Calgary, Edmonton, Mississauga, Montreal, Ottawa, Quebec City, Regina, Saskatchewan, Toronto, Vancouver, and Winnipeg

Copyright Google Maps Terms and Conditions Google Maps Terms. state that usage of material from Google Maps is regulated by Google Terms of Service Google Terms of Service. and some additional restrictions. Terms and Conditions, among others, state: For individual users, Google Maps is made available for your personal, non-commercial use only. For business users, Google Maps is made available for your internal use only and may not be commercially redistributed

Criticism Street map overlays, in some areas, may not match up precisely with the corresponding satellite images. The street data may be entirely erroneous, or simply out of date:

Restrictions have been placed on Google Maps through the apparent censoring of locations deemed potential security threats. In some cases the area of redaction is for specific buildings, but in other cases, such as Washington, DC, the restriction is to use outdated imagery. These locations are fully listed on Satellite images censored by Google Maps.

Google Street View has also gained a significant amount of controversy in the days following its release; privacy concerns have erupted due to the uncensored nature of its panoramic photographs.

Canadian driving directions where the starting address is close to the US border have recently and mysteriously switched to imperial measurements, giving all directions in feet and miles, though the rest of Canada receives directions in standard metric. There is also no option to use the metric system in the United Kingdom, despite it being used officially alongside the Imperial system.

Popular culture

In the SNL Digital Shorts Lazy Sunday starring Andy Samberg and Chris Parnell, the two comedians rap about a trip to the Movie theater and mention "Google Maps is the best", "True dat", and "Double True" in a writing scheme similar to that of Google. This was in comparison to Yahoo! Maps and Mapquest.
In the The Simpsons episode "Marge Gamer", Marge Simpson used Google Maps to view her house from above. Unlike Google Maps, the satellite view is shown live and the URL that Marge used was www.google.com instead of maps.google.com.
In the South Park (TV series) episode "The Snuke", Stan Marsh suggests the Counter Terrorist Unit-like staffers search Google Maps instead of Mapquest because it has live traffic.
In the Australian radio show Get This, the hosts make constant references to using Google Earth to 'downblouse' unsuspecting women.
In the movie Shooter, an FBI agent talks about having used Google Maps.
The movie Crank (film) uses Google Maps satellite images, with the Google logo clearly visible, in many scenes transitioning between different locations.

Cartolevity

As a bit of levity, Google Maps used to provide directions when a clearly impossible route between certain locations in North America and Europe was requested; however, one of the steps was "Swim across the Atlantic Ocean", with a travel time (29 days, 0 hours) and distance (3462 miles/5,572 km) calculated accordingly, between Le Havre in France and Boston in America. Similar searches between North America and South America have returned the same direction of "Swim across the Atlantic Ocean", albeit with a different route.