Remember the first time you ran a traceroute test to see what path internet packets had to travel to get from your computer to remote address? Remember how exciting that was? But after a while, you realize you're just looking at a list of IP addresses. The Visual Trace Route Tool shakes things up a bit by plotting those IP addresses on a Google Map.

When you enter a URL, the Visual Trace Route Tool plots the route from its own server to the remote address. It also plots the location of each point along the way so that you can follow your packets progress on a map. If you'd rather start the trip from your computer and not a remote server, you can use the proxy option to first trace the route from your computer to the YouGetSignal.com web site that hosts the trace route tool.

The result is a cool, but somewhat useless visual representation of a traceroute test.

[via UNEASYSilence]