LocalRoute — Business Route Advisor

Hyper-local route tips on Google Maps. Business owners share custom routes, parking & traffic alerts clients see while navigating.

Google Maps is smart. But it doesn't know about the Sunday market that blocks MG Road every week. It doesn't know about the school that makes Nehru Street impossible between 8-9 AM. It doesn't know about the temple festival that shuts down your entire street for two days every January. Local business owners know these things. LocalRoute puts that knowledge directly on your map. Why you need this Have you ever followed Google Maps perfectly - and still arrived 40 minutes late because nobody told you about the weekly market? Or circled a street for 20 minutes looking for parking that doesn't exist? Google Maps uses satellites, traffic sensors, and historical data. What it cannot use is a business owner standing at their door knowing that their lane is always blocked on Sunday mornings and that the best approach is the side street two blocks north. LocalRoute fills that gap. When you navigate to a business that uses LocalRoute, a small advisory panel appears on your Google Maps screen - automatically, without you doing anything - showing you exactly what the business owner wants you to know before you arrive. What you see as a client When you search for a LocalRoute-registered business on Google Maps, a panel appears showing: Road advisories Which roads to avoid today and why. "Avoid MG Road - Sunday market running 6AM to 1PM." "Skip Nehru Street - school traffic 8-9AM weekdays." Specific, local, real. Recommended route The alternate route the business owner suggests. Not a guess - this is the route they have watched hundreds of clients successfully take. The acceptance rate is shown so you know how trusted the suggestion is. Parking near the entrance Exact parking spots near the business, with distance, type (free / paid / private), and capacity. No more circling. "Lane behind our gate - free, 8 cars, look for the blue gate." Open / closed status Real-time open/closed status set by the business owner - more accurate than Google's estimated hours because the owner updates it directly. Direct contact WhatsApp and call buttons right in the overlay. If you're lost or the lane looks confusing, one tap connects you to the business. Owner's note A personal message from the business owner. The kind of thing they would tell you if you called ahead: "Look for the orange sign at the gate. Don't take the lane on the left - it's a dead end." What business owners can do LocalRoute gives business owners a dashboard to manage everything their clients see while navigating: Publish route suggestions - manually or by typing naturally Fill in a structured form (road to avoid, alternate route, days active, time window) - or just type in plain English like "Sunday market blocks MG Road from 6am to 1pm, tell clients to use Mission Street instead" and our AI fills in all the details for you. Add parking spots Add as many parking locations as you want - with name, distance from your entrance, type (free street parking / paid lot / private space / two-wheelers only), capacity, and a note for clients. Schedule advisories Set exactly when your advisory is active - specific days of the week and specific time windows. Your Sunday market warning only shows on Sundays between 6AM and 1PM. Your school-hours advisory only shows on weekday mornings. Track suggestion accuracy See what percentage of clients used your suggested route vs. Google's default. See how much time was saved. Know which suggestions are working and which to improve. Get notified when clients start navigating When someone from Chennai or Bangalore starts navigating to your business, you get a notification. You know a client is on the way before they even arrive. See where clients are coming from A live trips dashboard shows every active navigation to your business - origin city, trip reason (property visit / meeting / delivery / shopping), estimated arrival time, and which route they are taking. Control your contact visibility Choose whether your phone number is visible to everyone, only to clients who are actively navigating to you, or hidden entirely. Toggle WhatsApp and call buttons on or off independently. Share with nearby businesses Your route advisory can be shared with neighboring businesses. When a client navigates to the cafe next door, they also see your MG Road Sunday advisory - because the road affects everyone on the same street. This builds a community traffic intelligence layer for your entire neighborhood. Share your catalogue Attach your product or service listings to your directions page. A client navigating to a rental office can browse available properties before they even arrive. Built for India India has some of the most complex local traffic patterns in the world: - Weekly street markets (Sunday markets, Saturday bazaars) that completely block main roads for half the day - Temple and mosque festivals that close entire neighbourhoods for processions - School zones that create gridlock twice a day during term time - Seasonal flooding that makes certain lanes impassable for months - Construction that redirects traffic for years without map updates - Local events - cricket matches, political rallies, cultural festivals - that no algorithm can predict Google Maps uses traffic data from millions of GPS signals. LocalRoute uses something more powerful: the person who has watched clients struggle to reach their business for years and knows exactly what to tell them. Whether you are in Pondicherry, Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad, or any city in India - if you run a business, your clients deserve better directions than Google can give them alone. How it works 1. You open Google Maps and type a destination 2. LocalRoute checks if that destination is a registered LocalRoute business 3. It fetches the current advisory from the business owner's dashboard in real time 4. A small, clean panel appears on your map - above the map controls on the left side 5. The panel shows the route advisory, parking, and contact options 6. You follow the business owner's tip and arrive without getting stuck The extension never modifies Google Maps itself. It only adds an overlay panel. Everything Google Maps does continues to work normally - LocalRoute is additive, not disruptive. The panel can be minimised with one click if you don't need it, and dismissed entirely. If you have already dismissed an advisory for a destination, it won't pop up again on your next visit. Privacy - what we do and don't do We take your privacy seriously. Here is exactly what LocalRoute does with your data: What we read: - The destination you type into Google Maps (to check if it matches a LocalRoute business) - Nothing else. We do not read your search history, your location history, your other tabs, or any personal information. What we store locally (on your device only): - Your extension settings (show/hide advisories, parking toggle, notification preference) - Whether you have dismissed a particular advisory (so we don't show it again) What we send to our server: - The destination name (to look up the advisory) - Whether a route advisory was shown (anonymous, used to calculate accuracy stats for the business owner) - No IP address, no name, no email, no personal identifier What we never do: - Sell your data to anyone - Show you advertisements - Track your location - Read any other website or tab - Share any personal information with business owners (they see trip counts, not identities) You can uninstall LocalRoute at any time from chrome://extensions and all local data is immediately deleted. Permissions explained LocalRoute requests only the permissions it needs: - activeTab: to read the Google Maps destination from the current tab's URL - storage: to save your settings (show/hide advisories, parking preference) - notifications: to optionally alert you when a route advisory is available - alarms: to sync any offline-stored data every 10 minutes when you reconnect - tabs: to refresh advisories when a business owner updates their listing in real time We do not request access to all websites, your browsing history, your bookmarks, or any other sensitive data. Get started in 30 seconds For clients (people navigating to businesses): 1. Install LocalRoute from the Chrome Web Store 2. Open Google Maps 3. Search for any LocalRoute-registered business 4. The advisory panel appears automatically - no setup needed For business owners: 1. Install LocalRoute 2. Click the LocalRoute icon in your Chrome toolbar 3. Open the Business Dashboard 4. Register your business (free, takes 2 minutes) 5. Add your first route suggestion 6. Share your directions link with clients Your first advisory is live within minutes of registration. Real example - Rent Pondy, Pondicherry Rent Pondy is a property rental office on Chetty Street in Pondicherry's White Town. Every Sunday, the weekly market runs along MG Road from 6AM to 1PM. Google Maps routes every client straight into this market - adding 30 to 45 minutes of delay. With LocalRoute, every client who searches for Rent Pondy on a Sunday sees this advisory automatically on their Google Maps screen: Avoid MG Road - Sunday market 6AM-1PM Use Mission Street to Chetty Street instead Parking: Lane behind our gate - free, 8 cars Clients arrive on time. The owner stops receiving confused calls from clients stuck in market traffic. The suggestion has been accepted by 91% of visitors who see it. That is LocalRoute in practice. Frequently asked questions Q: Does LocalRoute work with Google Maps on mobile? A: LocalRoute is a Chrome desktop extension. For mobile, business owners can share a direct LocalRoute directions link that works in any mobile browser - no extension needed. Q: Does LocalRoute slow down Google Maps? A: No. The extension adds a lightweight overlay only when a matching business is found. There is no impact on Google Maps performance. Q: Is LocalRoute free? A: Yes, completely free for clients navigating to businesses. Business registration is also free during our launch period. Q: What if my destination is not a registered business? A: The panel only appears for businesses registered with LocalRoute. If your destination is not registered, the extension remains completely invisible and does nothing. Q: Does the business owner know who I am? A: No. Business owners see anonymous trip counts, origin cities, and route data - never names, phone numbers, or any personal information. Q: Can I turn it off? A: Yes. Click the LocalRoute icon in your Chrome toolbar and toggle off any feature. Or uninstall entirely from chrome://extensions. Q: How do I register my business? A: Click the LocalRoute extension icon, open the Business Dashboard, and register. Your business must have a physical address and be verified by phone OTP. Q: What cities are supported? A: LocalRoute works anywhere in India. Advisories are created by business owners, not by us - so any city where businesses register is supported immediately. Why install LocalRoute? Google Maps is built on data. LocalRoute is built on knowledge. Data tells you how traffic is moving right now. Knowledge tells you that this street is always impossible on Sunday mornings and you should have taken the side road three kilometres back. Install LocalRoute. Arrive on time. Stop guessing. Made with love in Pondicherry, India. For businesses and clients across India. Version 1.0 | Support: balarks@gmail.com