The Social

Google has released a Google Maps application program interface that enables developers to use the mapping software in applications that use Adobe Systems' Flash technology.

"We've designed it so that Flash graphics can be used for each tile layer, marker, and info window," a n announcement by Google Maps engineer Mike Jones read, "opening up possibilities like dynamic shading, shadowing, animation, and video."

Earlier this week, Google Maps added a feature to let users see what photos, videos, and user-created maps have been associated with various places around the world.

AUSTIN, Texas--"Dude, this sucks."

You could hear a whole lot of people saying that on Saturday night as the first real evening of South by Southwest Interactive Festival's after-parties kicked into gear. So how come it sucked? Well, it was the crowds. The lines outside the Google party at Light Bar, the Avenue A-Razorfish party at Six Lounge, and the 16Bit party at Scoot Inn were so long that they instigated plenty of woeful conversations about whether SXSWi had gotten so big and so mainstream that it just wasn't any fun anymore.

Gary Vaynerchuk's wine-soaked 'undergound' SXSWi party.

(Credit: Caroline McCarthy/CNET News.com)

I, for one, was about ready to call it a night after getting my toes stepped on one too many times at Scoot Inn. But then, while attempting to catch a cab back downtown, I ran into a couple of people, including WineLibrary.tv's Gary Vaynerchuk, who became locally famous for the liquor store he owns and Internet-famous for starting a video blog in conjunction with it. He and his buddies weren't about to stand around for a half hour just to get into the 16Bit party.

"I'm not dealing with this s***," Vaynerchuk called out in his Sopranos-worthy Jersey accent. "This isn't New York or L.A.; I'm not waiting in this line. Everybody come to the Marriott for free wine!"

So a few friends and I followed Vaynerchuk's instructions and headed to the hotel, where we were expecting to find a handful of dudes drinking cheap pinot noir for an hour or so before heading off to bed. Turns out that the eccentric sommelier, with the help of buddy Frank Gruber and the perpetually camera-toting Brian Solis, had set up a lively little shindig off the lobby of the hotel and had accompanied it with the seven--yes, seven--cases of wine that Vaynerchuk had shipped to Austin from the brick-and-mortar Wine Library.

It wasn't listed on Facebook or Upcoming. There was no badge check at the door. Heck, even the hotel didn't anticipate the hordes of geeks that would show up when Vaynerchuk and his guests Twittered the heck out of their fellow SXSWi attendees. (They kicked everyone out around 12:30 a.m.)

But it was one of those great, unexpected parties where nobody was getting turned away at the door, everybody seemed to know everybody, and everyone was having a fantastic time (apparently the game of choice among the Web 2.0 set is "Werewolf," which I knew as "Murder in the Dark" back in my junior high slumber party days) and there was no line at the bar because the "bar" consisted of Vaynerchuk standing on a chair and handing people bottles of wine with reckless abandon. One of the hottest conversation topics of the night was, understandably--why do SXSWi attendees bother with signing up to attend a zillion parties at the city's hottest nightclubs, when the highlight of the evening is an "underground" event in a hotel meeting room where everyone only knew about it because they'd heard on Twitter?

A word to the SXSWi-wise: don't get so obsessive-compulsive about making sure that guest list gets amassed from that online invitation. Sometimes the real fun doesn't get organized.

Not making plans is so totally Web 3.0.

See more stories in CNET News.com's coverage of SXSWi (click here).

Is it a childhood nightmare, a modernized niche of folklore, a box-office-tested horror film staple, an ironic riff on American consumerism, or simply an undead corpse hungry for fresh human brains?

Maybe it's all of the above. On Saturday at noon, somewhere around 200 zombies assembled at a bar in midtown Manhattan and proceeded to terrorize the city well into the night. This was Zombiecon 2007, the third annual edition of the pre-Halloween flash mob, and these reanimated corpses took the day very seriously. Among the crowd were undead clowns, airline pilots, ballerinas, doctors, chefs, Roman generals, prom couples, and tennis players. There were also zombified versions of Santa Claus, Pirates of the Caribbean protagonist Captain Jack Sparrow, singer Amy Winehouse, and author Hunter S. Thompson.

(Others, like yours truly, just spruced up jeans and a T-shirt with theatrical blood and white face paint.)

Also spotted: Lindsay Campbell, host of video blog Wallstrip, in a full-on goth-zombie ensemble as she interviewed fellow members of the undead for the cameras.

(Credit: The Directors' Bureau)

Ever wish you could come up with the next big thing? The Directors' Bureau's Idea Generator can help you out. It's a Flash app that will tell you how to make a million dollars by randomly choosing a set of words that comprise a potential "idea."

Let's overlook the fact that I wound up with "erotic rubber appliance." Then I re-spun and was given "scary paper book." Okay, now I think we're getting somewhere.

(Via Core77)

Trust me--I know procrastination. But this one really takes the cake.

JibJab, as you probably know already, made a name for itself by creating corny (yet socially relevant) musical skits that superimposed the heads of politicians and celebrities onto cartoon bodies. Now that user-generated content is nothing new, it almost seems overdue that JibJab would introduce a "make your own" feature. But now, at long last, here it is: "JibJab Starring You!"

The concept, at least according to the creators, is to JibJab yourself by uploading a photo, easily crop it with the Flash-based tools to make a bobblehead-like image, and then revel at the absurdity of watching yourself dance the Charleston.

But don't let that fool you. The real purpose of "Starring You!" is to dig up photos of your boss and put them into any number of the dorky dance videos. As a bonus, most of them require two dancers, so you can use the likenesses of multiple co-workers--or choose from a small library of celebrity heads that range from Donald Trump to Barack Obama.

As a demonstration, I present to you Josh Lowensohn, Hot Mamacita. (No, Josh isn't my boss, but he's more...photogenic.)