That's not the exact route the flight will take; it's the quickest (great circle) route. Airliners fly along airways.
I can also see the approximate route the flight will take, with layovers and other planned stops.
For me it just drags the map (Chrome 13.0.782.220 / OS X).
> I may have a general area of where I want to end up, but this lets you choose exactly where through a visual map. Again, very cool.
...is a map really helpful for this? How often do you want to go somewhere but not know the name? I'd rather they take all of that map space and use it for something else. I wouldn't mind something that says "hey, you could save $x on this flight if you went to $nearby_airport instead of the one you're on."
Definitely. They could also just overlay that on the map like they do the popular destinations.
I'm on Chrome 15 (dev), which probably explains it.
> is a map really helpful for this?
I like maps. You never know what you'll notice on one.
This will be (if it isn't already) integrated with their search product. In other words, it'll be a part of search. You'll search for "flight from ny to sf" and that's what you'll see. Perfectly natural for them to have a consistent UI in their search product.
> Why is there a giant map at the top of the screen?
It's interactive. Try pulling the marker from one location to another. Very cool. I can also see the exact route that the flight will take. More intuitive.
I may have a general area of where I want to end up, but this lets you choose exactly where through a visual map. Again, very cool.