Lately, it was published that if you ask Google Maps to show you instructions on how to get from one place to another, which is across the ocean, Google Maps will offer you to swim. For example, here’s Google Maps’ instructions on how to get from Mountain View to Zurich. Note that instruction 36 says:
Swim across the Atlantic Ocean, 3,462 mi
Google Maps is offering you to swim 3,462 miles (5,571.54893 kilometers, I used Google Calculator for this) across the Atlantic Ocean in order to get to Zurich.
While this is funny, I also think it’s a very nice touch by Google. Obviously, the swimming part can be replaced by:
- detailed flight information, or
- an error saying the route cannot be computed.
While the error option would have been much easier for Google, they chose to put a placeholder until (I’m sure) they’ll have integrated flight information for their directions part of Google Maps. So why, really, emit an error when you can be funny?