Comments on: Create some really cool maps with these apps

These Web tools are designed to help you create a terrific Google Maps mashup, whether you want to map your Flickr photos or guide people attending an event.

[kc6hur]

I really like EveryTrail.com for publishing my horseback trail rides. They will take you GPS tracks and plot them on Google maps, then accept uploaded photos or photos from flickr, geotag them based on time tag and show where on the map the photos were taken. Also can display stats for your track. Very cool site.

[Ikiruusa]

I'm a teacher looking for mapping software similar to the software used on the news channels to create red and blue states. I want to be able to have student click on the states and discover things about it. Such as if a state was conferderate or not.

[GeoWebGuru]

Maps with areas shaded according to some attribute (eg. an election result) are known as choropleth maps. You'll probably to create something yourself that creates a choropleth map in Google, although there are some programming articles which would get you started if you were so inclined.

The problem with plotting shaded areas like this with most packages (including Google Maps) is that you need the shape outlines (States in this case). You also want to be able to display interesting information about the States. You might want to look at the much-hyped "WolframAlpha" ( http://wolframalpha.com ). The interface takes a bit of getting used to so you'll want to experiment a bit, but you do allsorts of factual queries about places. It also produces maps.

Another option (but commercial) is Microsoft MapPoint. This can create shaded maps, and you could load your own data into it (eg Civil War allegiances) and it has its own demographics. Might be too complex for kids (same might apply for Wolfram Alpha).

[HisStoryTeacher]

Do any of these allow you to upload points from a excel spreadsheet?

[claire_mclister]

Try ZeeMaps: http://www.zeemaps.com You can upload your spreadsheet data saved as a CSV file. ZeeMaps is the only service that will allow you to upload 10's of thousands of entries.

[thomasp9]

www.my-own-map.com (free and no need to register)

[GeoWebGuru]

A good collection of Google Mapping applications. I've posted a link to this article in the Site Recommendations forums at:

http://www.geowebguru.com/forums?func=view&catid=8&id=77