This weekend I was on a 7h trip and looking for the next favorite restaurant along the route. All had was an android cell phone and a pretty slow internet connection. My first try was the hompage of that fast food company but that was not optimized for slow internet/cell phone So I gave a up after 10mins waiting.
My one and only test with google maps just showed the restaurants in the vicinity (off the route).
So if I plan a route with google maps or even navigate, is it possible to define a search for POIs along the current route (like for favourite fast food restaurants)?
Just realized that there's a workaround for a machine with sufficient screen size – just set the route on google maps and enter your favourite restaurants name in the search box. Maps will show all hits on the actual view, zooming in/zooming out will change the result list. So at home it's possible to quickly find POI's along the route (just because route and POIs are displayed on one map).
But this is not an option for a cell phone display – if I zoom out to look around 150 km ahead on the route, then the map and the results are far to small…
Best Answer
Road.li lets you put in your start point, end point, and a query, and it will show you places that match the query along your route. It also shows how much time each place adds to your trip.
It is a tool that I created.