Did I just say "web 2.0"? I promised myself I'd never do that. I'm not really sure what it means :-) But anyway, I'm going to show you a very cool and simple trick for sending custom directions to someone that is a lot better and more personal than the way you used to do it, so I guess that makes it web 2.0.

When one human gives driving directions to another, we tend to litter them with hints like "bear left after the big pink elephant sculpture" or my favorite "If you pass a Texaco station you went too far". Landmarks and hints like this are hugely valuable when you are in unfamiliar territory, but robo-directions on the web lack this human touch. Using Collections in Live Search Maps its really easy for you to provide a route for your friends annotated with custom waypoints and travel hints.

Here is a sample route from a nightclub to my house that I could email. Note the points I have added along the route highlighting parking, a difficult to spot turn, a place to buy wine along the way and other useful hints.

For the recipient of the route, its handy to include my notations in the printout that they'll take with them in the car. In Live Map's Print menu, they can choose 'Map and Text' which will include my Collection of travel hints on their printed map along with normal turn-by-turn directions. you can see this in the print preview screen below:

Best of all, it only takes you two minutes to create your custom Collection of travel tips.

1. Create a route like you normally would.
2. Right click at places along the route and select 'Add Pushpin'. Enter your notes about this pushpin and hit save.
3. Repeat step 2, adding as many points as you want.
4. Hit the Save button on the Scratchpad to save your Collection. give it a friendly name.
5. Use the Share --> Send Link in Email menu option in Live Maps to send a permalink with your route and Collection to your friend.

The same trick can be used for building travel itineraries. Be sure to take advantage of all of the power of Collections by adding business that are relevant to the trip as well, like Hotels or sites you plan to visit. And since you can draw shapes and lines in your Collection, you can add some pretty sophisticated visual cues to your map. I used that feature in my Collection shown above to highlight a few square blocks near my house where free street parking is abundant.