I heard last month that Google was working on a walking directions version of their Google Maps and they finally released a beta version this week.

Two months ago I was in New York and was looking for a particular dim sum place in Chinatown.  I didn’t know the name, address, phone number, or any info that would help me locate it.  All I knew is that it had red awning (umm..every place has yellow or red awning) and was near some square from the last time I was there.  Having GPS on my Blackberry helped, but still made me walk in circles around Chinatown.  If I had the walking directions back then it would’ve made things a lot easier.  Luckily I found it two days later after doing a little more research online.

Source: Google

NIECEE’s TAKE AWAYS:

• If you’re thinking of it, it’s probably made or in the process. For awhile I had been saying “Google Maps needs to make a walking directions version!” There are so many innovators who get frustrated because someone beat them to it. If you have an innovative idea, you should probably thoroughly do your research and see if it’s already been made or will be made. If it has, then figure out what ways you can learn from it and improve it to fit your targets needs.