MeetWays—There’s a lake in central Massachusetts, not too far from where I live, called Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg, which is said to be one of the world’s longest place names.

The locals say it means, “You fish on your side, and I fish on my side, and no one fishes in the middle.” However, according to an entry in WikiPedia, the 45-letter name comes from the language of the local Nipmuc people and means something close to “fishing place at the boundary.”

In a ‘roundabout way, that’s what came to mind when I decided to review MeetWays, an app from a developer of the same name. Yeah, my mind does tend to wander, which partially explains why MeetWays intrigued me.

The sole purpose of MeetWays is for two people to determine what is the midpoint between two places so they can meet up for a date, to buy or sell something they saw on Craigslist, or to make sure they’re not fishing in the middle of a lake with a name no one has any hopes of pronouncing.

Simply enter the two points in the designated fields, as well as a point of interest if you’re so inclined, and MeetWays will split the entire distance and pin it on a map at the halfway point along with driving directions. It’s up to you if you want to avoid highways to get to your destination. All that takes is a tap on the Avoid Highways on/off switch.

MeetWays works best with an iPhone 3G with GPS built-because of its precision, but GPS is not a must for this app to hook you up. You can save and manage your pins if you plan to make the trip more than once.

Last, you also have the option of emailing a link to whomever you’re meeting. Tap the link in the email and you’ll go to the MeetWays site where you’ll find a map with the suggested route and an address where to meet.

MeetWays, the developer, says the app works in 27 countries.

Just how useful an app like this is, I really can’t say. On a personal level, I can think of maybe two or three instances where I’ve met someone halfway in more than 10 years. Regardless, it’s straightforward to use and the interface makes it easy to get to wherever you want to go.

I tried MeetWays for find the midpoint in a variety of locations and it seemed to work fine in every instance including locating the midpoint of one of Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg’s boundaries.

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category: General Navigation, Navigation, Share Location