This post is part of our Hottest Products of 2007 feature. Also check out our other Hottest Products of 2007 posts and let us know which product you think is the greatest thing since sliced bread.
2007 may go down as the year people's perceptions of what a map is changed forever, and proved the value of user-generated content. Much of that sea change can be credited to Google Maps.
Maps -- for centuries static, analog pieces of information -- have gone digital, allowing us to add layer upon layer of additional information, in a variety that strains imagination. For example:
- Maps that contain links to photographs of the noted location. If you want to know what the intersection of the Dawson and Dempster highways in Alaska looks like, you might find it on a Google Map. (Hint: There's a big sign warning hunters that it is illegal to leave gut piles within 1 km of the road).
- Fans of the writer Patrick O'Brian (such as myself), can refer to a user-generated Google Map tracing the travels of his heroes Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin.
- Followers of the television show The Amazing Race can track the participants' progress on a Google Map.
- The Los Angeles Times created a Google map for readers to track the progress of the recent outburst of wildfires.
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