n01getsout.com’s blog

I think Google Maps was one of the first killer web apps. It was probably the first AJAX application I ran into. I spent countless hours just looking at the world from a new perspective. Google then released Google Earth, which gave me more ways to view and interact with the satellite imagery. Google has also released an API for Google Maps, which allowed others to use their imaginations to create new and useful derivatives. Here are just a few of the cool ones…

Flash Earth is a site that allows you to easily switch between satellite imagery from Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Ask.com, and NASA. This allows you to compare them to get the best or newest images of what you are looking at.

WikiMapia is a mash-up of Google Maps and a Wiki. It allows you to create, view, and comment on descriptions for any place you want. Good if you are trying to figure out what that weird building down the street is. You can even add the WikiMapia data to Google Earth by downloading the WikiMapia Data Layer.

News Map pulls news articles from Yahoo News about the country you select. Simply click a country and start reading.

Placeopedia is a site that ties articles from Wikipedia to Google Maps. An easy way to find out if your town has any articles about it. PediaX also overlays Wikipedia information onto Google Maps.

Hungry? Try FastFoodMaps.com (as if you really need a map to find a fast food restaurant). You can also try FindByClick.com to locate Starbucks and Tim Hortons coffee shops.

You can see the solar system with the amazing Google Sky. You can look at the cosmos in microwave, infrared, x-ray and ultraviolet and see images from many different sources including the Hubble Space Telescope. There are many other Google maps of celestial objects such as  Europa (one of Jupitar’s moons), Google Mars, Google Moon, and you can even see how the Earth looks at night.