Creative Uses of Google Maps

Half the fun in loot, for me, is watching the tracker data. You plug some alphanumerical string into UPS or something and check every so often to find out where your stuff is. Sometimes it takes a rather unusual path to get to you (recall some time ago when I was all WTF about a DealExtreme package taking the long way from Shanghai to Fontana when the plane could have simply hopped the pacific in far less time).

And then I find Boxoh. Most awesome package tracker ever, because it plots the stops on Google Maps in addition to the usual tracker data! Obviously you’d have to plug in the tracker string as soon as you get it to get the maximum effect (it doesn’t retroactively plot) but there’s something HIGHLY amusing about actually seeing a package’s journey on a map.

Watch the tracker mapping for my TV that I ordered. It’s cute how Boxoh even uses a package icon in place of the usual Google location indicators. :)

Also, Weather Underground! It eats up your entire browser window and has all these switches to toggle things like temperature view, precipitation, clouds and, yes, storm radar! (The internet is for storm pooooorn~) Oddly enough, it will also plot out the locations of Holiday Inns and Wells Fargo. Huh.

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