I too have gone the wrong way in following directions from an online map service, in my case, Yahoo. It directed me several miles away from my destination in San Diego, into what seemed to be cemetery, rather than the company I was going to visit.

More recently, I purchase a copy of MS Streets & Trips and used it to locate a company in Phoenix. Driving from the hotel, the directions got us almost there correctly. The company is on the right side of the street, but just before getting there, the directions said to make a left turn up a side street for 50 yds!

That said, I have had success with both the online and the Streets & Trips software. The latter was particularly valuable this summer in planning our vacation as it located several Sheraton hotels in the areas where we wanted to visit on the East Coast, after Starwood Preferred Guest reservations could not tell us where the hotels were located in relation to the attractions we were interested in -- and I am SPG Platinum .