April 7, 2005

Maps, maps, how I love maps

I’m a map junkie, and I’m not afraid to admit it. When I’m not driving, one of my favorite things to do on road trips is to pouring over Mr. Rand McNally. I once spent half an hour looking at the road systems and highways on Montana’s page, just to try to figure how many miles you could drive without crossing over another road. Trust me, it’s a long way.

So you can understand my enthusiasm over Google Maps. It makes MapQuest look so 1990’s. Not only can you quickly get directions on a map that somehow scrolls without the page having to reload, but now they have satellite imagery for most areas and it zooms in really close for Metropolitan areas. For example, take a look at the USS Alabama in the Mobile Bay. You can even push the plus symbol and zoom in even closer. Pretty remarkable, huh?

All you have to do is go to google.com and type in a city and state (mobile al) or a zip code or an entire address. A normal street map will appear, but to get the satellite map, just click "Sattelite" in the upper right hand corner.

This is like crack cocaine for the map-a-holic.