Google Maps... The next big thing

I've loved google ever since I got turned onto it so many years ago. It's less cluttered then Yahoo and I'm a gigantic fan of their new gmail system (post a comment if you want me to send you an invite). Now they've got google maps which is very nice. I'm not sure it's quite up to par with Yahoo maps but it has some nifty features and provides for a satellite hybrid picture which is just spot on. Apparently though, Google hasn't stopped there. They've opened up their data stream for google maps to allow for all different kinds of applications. You can find world maps for Guild Wars online that use Google maps. You can find links to locations of all the people on hotornot.com.

Kevin Maney, the Tech writer for USAToday, had this article in the paper today. As programming becomes easier and computer languages become more comprehensible we'll continue to see this wave of new applications. There are alot of things that could be done (A brogdon.org hosting of all Landisites plotted on Google maps would be pretty nice... *CoughCough*). We'll just have to wait and see though.

On a related note, the article mentions a "...one bank that thought they had no customers outside the U.S. They found immediately that they had icons all over Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa." Uhmm... expect that Bank to get a phone call from its regulators any day now.