Concerning Google Directions and not so secret, secret knowledge

I normally post about law and lawyers. This is a post about Google. Well I suppose most lawyers use Google so it is of some interest. More specifically, it is about Google Directions, which has become increasingly popular over the last year or so. In fact, most people now seem to use this in preference to traditional navigation systems. And it is easy to see why.

It is very easy to use. No more inputting of addresses or hoping that your sat nav will accept postcodes. You can simply search for where you are going and click on the Directions button. It is also easy to use. For years I had a Mercedes Sat Nav which pre dated the M6 Toll Road. The poor thing almost went into meltdown as soon as I got south of Walsall. It can also change its plans, which may or not be a good thing and which is the point of this article.

Last week, I was driving from Liverpool to North Wales. It is a drive that I have done many times. I was using Google to help me get to a specific address in Deganwy. There are currently major roadworks on the A55 south of Abergele. My Google friend told me that there was a delay of about 20 mins. As we got nearer the hold up, she chipped in with a suggestion. She had found an alternative route that would save 16 minutes. Well that was an offer that I couldn’t refuse, and it was so specific that it had to be worth a try. So I obediently left the main road. All went well for about 5 minutes as I smugly drove along narrow roads past the crawling masses. But then I got to a small town centre where I ground to a halt along with several hundred other cars. It was a complete log jam. I gave it half an hour before turning around with the white flag flying. I ended up back where I started and joined the queue. The whole adventure added about 90 minutes to my journey.

This is the problem with popularity of Google. It gave me a sneaky short cut. It gave half of North Wales the same sneaky short cut and we all converged on a small town at the same time. No doubt all of us truly believed that we were in on some secret known only to us and Madame Google. So here is the simple but important lesson. Google is great at getting you from A – B. But it shares your secrets with thousands of others, in which case a bit of common sense or even a road map should prevail.

End of rant!