New Google Maps running tool: MapMyRun

Here is a new Google Maps exercise tool called MapMyRun.com - It can be used for running, walking, biking, wheeling.. whatever! It allows your map your route, plot your distances (miles and kilometers) in real time and also calculate the number calories burned.

Check out Google Maps tools similar to this:

• Walk.Jog.Run - save routes by city
• Gmaps Pedometer

Other Recreation and Fitness mashups can be found here.

182 School Districts. 1623 Schools. 150,000 data points. 1 Google Map.

Brian Timoney has created a functional Google Map to display standardized test scores for 1623 public schools in Colorado. It allows the map user to make quick visual comparisons between schools as well as getting 3 year drill-down information by clicking on any given school. Brian has this to say about the Google Maps integration:

"Standardized testing is a high-profile issue in the state and it is our hope that presenting this bulky dataset in this intuitive format will enrich the public debate."

[via]

3 more Google Maps mashups!

HotorNot.com is a site where you can post a photograph of yourself (or someone else) and have visitors to the hotornot.com website rank the photo. The question that is posed - Hot or Not? Think what you may, this site has been around a while and continues to be popular. This Google Maps mashup (link now dead) has taken the site a step further by plotting the locations of those in the photos on a Google Maps overlay. As a footnote, HotorNot actually has an API and developer wiki which this person used to create this mashup.

Here's (link now dead) a Google Maps mashup which has combined the 'Wiki' page publishing concept with Google Maps. "Maps can be created, edited, saved in a Wiki fashion". The creator is eager for feedback.

Google Maps and the TTC (Toronto Transit Commission) - I'm not sure if I already posted this overlay or not. If not, here is the Toronto subway network (known as the TTC) overlaid onto Google Maps. So much more could be done with the captions for this hack. Station information, accessibility info, photos etc. I'm sure more detail will be added to this or an enhanced mashup.

Google Map interface now includes a scale!

Since any good map includes a scale, Google Maps is no longer an exception. If you check Google Maps today you'll notice at the bottom left of the map tool, there is now a handy scale to judge distance. For Canadians and other countries using the metric system, it is displayed in kilometres as well as miles!

(Thanks to the good folks at Google Sightseeing and Sightseeing with Google Maps for the tip!)

Find your friendly local brothel on Google Maps!

Quickie Google Search Lays Out "Brothels"
Yahoo! News - Thu May 12

What do the University of Oregon's history department in Eugene, Ore.; the Happy Ending bar in Manhattan; and the Abstinence Clearinghouse in Sioux Falls, S.D. have in common?

According to Google Maps, the for-free location and driving instructions service that the San Francisco-based search giant operates, all are identified as houses of ill repute.

Google Maps Mania

If you're like me you were absolutely floored when Google came out with the Google Maps service. Sure, it's just another mapping service.. Until you realize it's full potential. The ability to toggle between regular street/road maps and a satellite view is unreal. I've started to see a lot of buzz around the blogging community about Google Maps so I've decided to help you keep up with the Google Maps related sites, blogs and tools that are cropping up.

Stay tuned.