It seems that every time I step away from the computer, I come back to several new mapping hacks using the Google Maps API (see previous entry). I’ve got some backlog to work through, suffice to say. But first I want to point to one that impresses me a lot: Alan Taylor has done a lot of neat things before with web services; his latest is Google Maps Transparencies, which combines the maps and the satellite images and crossfades them: a centre square, either satellite or map, is semi-transparent, so you can see the surrounding opposite display through it. Not only is it visually impressive, but it’s a great way to see where the mapping data and satellite imagery diverge, as they inevitably do here and there. (Thanks to Scott at Semiquark.)