I had no idea that Google Maps had so many features. I could customize a Google Map to locate places of interest, so that is what I did...I wanted to look for the nearest Indian restaurant. Here is a bird's eye view of what, according to Google, Minnesota has to offer in the way of Indian (light blue dots), Japanese (dark blue dots), and Asian (brown dots) restaurants. Before you go up north to eat any Indian food, however, keep in mind that a search engine only recognizes keywords, but cannot necessarily pair a keyword up with the information that you want. All of the light blue dots on the map are either tribal colleges, tribal offices, restaurants with the name "Indian" in them, or mistakes (Panda Buffet is a Chinese restaurant). So Google played with me while I was having a serious samosa craving!
100 Things to Do with Google Maps Mashups is going to give me a lot to play with the next time I plan a trip or expect a package. Calculating taxi fare using TaxiWiz.com is also going to be very useful.
In regard to what Google Maps Mashups would be useful in my library...any one of these, as you never know what type of reference question someone will ask. In response to "Where's the bathroom?" I could direct someone to safe2pee.org...
A cool website that uses Google Map technology is The Kremer Collection site, which allows you to get closeups of paintings in the collection. The site also provides historical information about the paintings. You will be able to count every feather on the ducks of this painting:
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