Cutline Speaks

Hit the Map, Jack

posted by The Cutline Team on April 28, 2008

I love San Francisco, and I take advantage of every opportunity to extol the virtues of my hometown. That's why I am really excited about MapJack, a new mashup for Google Maps. It's a web application which is functionally similar to Google Street View and includes Google's Map, a movable action figure for easy navigation, and 360-degree panoramic views of streets complete with virtual portraits of life contained therein.

While Google Street View boasts a very extensive index of US cities, MapJack decided to start out in Northern California, featuring San Francisco and also extending the views into Marin County, Lake Tahoe and Yosemite. The application offers a highly developed user interface with several modifiable visualization options, more viewable areas within the city, and high resolution images. EveryScape is another impressive alternative to Google Street View, but since they initially decided to focus on cities in the eastern United States, my regional favoritism has led me to favor MapJack for now. It just goes to show that the city continues to be a hub of technological innovation and looks great doing it.

Tags for this post: entertainment