so after looking at and thinking about this a little more, I've decided google didn't do a bad job creating a route-making tool—because that's not what they were trying to make. Try to think about the difference between a map and a route. you don't go out and buy a map with the route to grandma's house on it. you buy the map for the details (roads, landmarks, etc) Google is giving you the opportunity to create your own MAP, just something to share points/areas/etc you find to be of interest. Take a look at the demo; it's a POI map for Rt66 I think, and it doesn't have a single line on it, just points along the route that people might like to know about. I'm not 100% sure where I'd use this, but say I was putting on an event, and wanted to provide a link people could go to with restrooms/food/registration are, this would be a super easy way to do it.