Google Maps spawns thoughts..

The aim of this blog is to spotlight the tools and hacks that are being influenced by Google Maps as well as the ideas and things that come to mind when using the tool and seeing all the cool things that people are doing with it. Here are some thoughts by two bloggers:

Jim Horton says the following in a recent posting on his 'Online Public Relations Thoughts' blog:

It is apparent that with a little work, one could use the maps to plot history tours of town, for example with satellite photos that pick out structures where one should stop. This in a crude way is what Google sightseeing is doing except that individual satellite photos of interesting objects have been picked out and assembled in one place. One could develop a treasure hunt using Google maps and imagery as a publicity event. One could show company facilities in various cities around the US by plotting them on the maps and satellite imagery. There is no end of information that can be plotted onto the map and simultaneously on the satellite photo that accompanies it. Take a few minutes to wander through the sites on the "cool uses" page then let your imagination wander. (more)

..While over at Directions Magazine Adena Schutzberg and Joe Francica have written an "An Open Letter to GIS/Geospatial Software Companies":

To quote #2:

2) Expectations are changing. Once geospatially savvy (and perhaps more importantly geospatially non-savvy) people got a look at Yahoo! Maps, MapPoint and Google Maps, their expectations for Web mapping immediately changed. Those quaint, but slow and feature laden offerings from your customers (often towns, counties and states, but also the federal government and businesses) seemed years out of date. Why else would hackers spend so much time with Google Maps? Why else would bosses insist on solutions that look like, or in fact are, based on those solutions? Can you catch up and regain your customers (and your customersÂ’ customersÂ’) support? (more)

This is a great article. Read all of it here..

Both are good examples of the thoughts that are getting into the minds of people using Google Maps (and other tools like it) and what "directions" (no pun intended) they see things going as a result of this new open source mapping tool for the masses..