For your mapping sweet tooth

Posted on July 11, 2007 by Melissa Worden

Google today added more than 100 third party mashups to its MyMaps.

“It’s a really powerful innovation,” said John Hanke, Google’s director of maps. “It’s like combining chocolate and peanut butter. They’re good by themselves, but the combination is much more valuable than when they are served in isolation.”

I played around with it a bit, and I like. I did a real estate search in my area and found several listings in quite a user-friendly format.

This is the latest step in Google’s mashup evolution: In April, the company allowed readers to add text, photos and video to customized maps. In late June, they unveiled a feature that lets users easily change driving directions.

Newspapers better watch out. Google’s going even more local, and the opportunities are endless here. But then again, we’ve just been given some more powerful tools with embedding video and photos that I hope journalists will take advantage of.

Adding content to personalized maps: