Now, I know there are those of you wondering why this even matters, what difference walking directions makes. Or, as one commenter put it:

Walking directions? Whatever happened to just showing up, facing your body in the direction you wanted to go, and walking?

Of course, the simple answer to the smart alecky question is I tried that, but I kept walking into things"buildings, oncoming traffic . . . rivers (return snark for snark is a Biblical injunction, isnt it?).

The Google Maps blog post announcing the addition gives a good explanation (also with pictures), but heres mine for an unfamiliar city (New York) for a single turn:
Driving:

Walking:

Granted, yes, you should be able to figure out how to walk around the corner without the help of Google Maps (driving in a city full of one-way streets, though . . . thats another story).

But when mapping programs dont offer pedestrians and tourists walking directions, the misadventures can be myriad"not the least of which is potentially walking a lot further than necessary because of said one-way streets. Odds are good that there are more than one corner between you and your destination, and do you want to walk six times the necessary distance to get there?

Im sure, however, that most people have no need to be convinced of the usefulness of walking directions. Instead, theyre wondering what took Google so long, especially given that other mapping programs, including Microsoft and, until recently, Ask, have had them for ages. Me too.

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