Chris posted recently about MyMaps, the new Google Maps feature that makes it easy to create your own interactive maps. As it happens, I’d previously been playing around with a very similar non-Google mashup service called Wayfaring that does much the same thing.
I haven’t used Google’s version yet, but by all accounts it sounds promising. My experience with Wayfaring has already provided a pleasant awakening as to the possibilities of these sorts of tools … especially if they might someday allow users to print out the maps neatly with both the map image and the placemarks index intact. (Attention product developers: HINT! HINT! That’s an essential feature for turning these things into DIY guidebooks for a full day’s walkabout, and as far as I can tell, neither Wayfaring nor MyMaps offers it yet.)
In any event, I recently created the Telstar Logistics Guide to Bay Area Attractions on Wayfarer, which I suspect will also work well as another Geekdad guide to NorCal funspots. It’s designed for kids of all ages, but especially those who have an interest in local military history, abandoned places, transportation infrastructure, ice cream, tacos, Japan, vintage arcade amusements, photography, and/or wild sea lions that go Arf! Arf! Arf!
