Filed under: Fun, Web services, Google
Draw all over Google Maps with quickmaps
quickmaps is a cool new Google Maps-based web service (or mashup, if you prefer) that lets you get really creative with your Google Maps. Quickmaps gives you a bunch of tools, including a couple dozen markers, line and doodle tools for drawing, and text labels that you can place anywhere on a Google map. Drawing is done with the mouse, and markers and text labels are conveniently drag-and-drop. There's a lot of ways you could quickmaps, but the front page has a few suggestions: "drawing a map to your house, sketching out a cycling or hiking route, or telling everyone where you saw the grizzly bear." quickmaps is super-easy to use, but I was frustrated that in order to remove "doodled" lines you must remove them one segment at a time, which gets old fast. Maps that you create can be saved and shared with your friends. Registration is optional, but if you don't register you can't go back and edit maps that you've saved. And, of course, once you save your map you can embed it in your web site and share it with your friends. I have to say that apart from the doodle-removal issue, quickmaps is one of the slickest applications of the Google Maps API I've seen yet.
With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet.
They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...
