The number of hacks and mashups of Google Maps prevents me from reporting on every single one of them properly, but I am paying attention, and will report on the more noteworthy ones, and on trends, when I can. The trouble is that there’s very little that can be said about them individually, except to say that Google Maps has now been combined with this data source, and isn’t that handy. Not a lot can be said about the cartography or the user interface, because it’s all the same.

Which isn’t to say that I don’t have some links for you about Google Maps hacks as a class. No ma’am.

Hacks made USA Today last week; their tech columnist, Kevin Maney, had a general introduction — which is what you’d expect in USA Today — last Tuesday (via Google Maps Mania).

Peacay sent in a link to lifehack.org’s Essential Resources for Google Maps, which lists the top hacks (in their opinion), plus tools and resources.

Speaking of resources, if you’re finding Google’s API documentation a little too opaque, take a look at Integrating Google Maps into Your Web Applications, a tutorial by Jason Gilmore over at developer.com (via Google Maps Mania). I’m noting this for future reference because sooner or later I’m going to try to do one of these myself, when I have a spare moment.