The power of Google Maps

Google introduced its google maps about four months ago. After years of getting lost thanks to yahoo maps and mapquest, google maps is a great invention. Plug in the directions, and the map that you see is interactive (so is mapquest, but google maps is a lot more user friendly). Its like laying hands on a big paper map and having a magnifying glass zooming in every street. Also cool is the ability to do local searches (type in an intersection and the type of cuisine you want and google maps out all the restaurants) nearby.



CNN had this really good article today about how developers (not the google guys) use data from outside databases and combine it with google's mapping technology to give users really useful information.

I find this concept fascinating. Thanks to this website, you can actually enter a location type, and district in chicago, and know which bar or car wash to avoid because of its crime history!

With the Housing maps site, which combines data from craig's list with google maps to identify houses/rentals on a map based on your criteria.

Right now, these sites have been developed by people not officially affiliated with google - many actually do it out of their own interest for developing new sites, and as a service for their community. However, many companies have expressed interest in combining data with google maps.