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Today: Google adds bicycling directions to Google Maps. Silicon Valley's jobless rate jumps to 12.4 percent in January, mostly from employers' seasonal cuts. Plus: More Google, MySpace, Silicon Valley tech stocks.

Adding a long-requested feature to Google Maps, the Mountain View Internet juggernaut is now offering directions customized for bicyclists.

While Google already provided directions for driving, walking or riding public transit, pointing bicyclists on the best path wasn't as easy.

* Google hits the bike paths.

manager Shannon Guymon wrote on Google's official blog today.

"We wanted to include as much bike trail data as possible, provide efficient routes, allow riders to customize their trip, make use of bike lanes, calculate rider-friendly routes that avoid big hills and customize the look of the map for cycling to encourage folks to hop on their bikes," Guymon wrote. "So that's exactly what we've done."

Google worked with the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, which advocates for the creation of biking and walking trails throughout the U.S., to gather trail-map data.