I. Love. Google.

Google is, in my opinion, one of the greatest modern conveniences we have. I probably use Google ~ 6 times per day on average. Or ~ 40 times per week. Or ~ 2000 times per year. That’s a lot of Googling. I use it to look up definitions of words, local businesses, scientific papers, directions, “how-to” help, guitar tabs, pictures, maps, medical conditions, weather, news, and a plethora of other things as well. But I’ve recently discovered my new favorite use for Google: the Gmaps Pedometer.

You see, I went running the other day, and I wanted to know how far I’d run. I drove the distance in my truck, but that isn’t quite as accurate as I’d like it to be. It was then that I had an epiphany – why can’t we have a “virtual pedometer.” Think about it…how nice would it be to be able to pull up a Google map, draw out the route you want to run, and then have the distance displayed for you on the screen? As soon as I got back to my office, I Googled “virtual pedometer” and guess what? Google didn’t fail me. It led me to a site called Gmaps Pedometer that took Google’s mapping abilities and coupled it with a distance recording capability. The result is pure magic. All you do is click along the route you want to take, and voila! Your course is highlighted on the map and the distance is displayed right beside it. Pretty cool, huh?