Almost immediately after Google launched Google Maps, a spattering of web-based applications based on the mapping technology starting popping up. So this might not exactly be cutting edge news. But I just had to highlight my two favorites so far:

HousingMaps.com - This site integrates Craigslist apartment listings for most major cities, and places the titles and photos of listings as pins on a Google Map. Rad. This is actually how we found our apartment here in Vancouver. Much to my joy, I stumbled across this site during at the end of our year in Boston. You can quickly click from pin to pin, looking at photos of listings by neighborhood…. which is really a great way to search amidst a sea of available apartments. Suddenly the deceptive “5 minutes to downtown!” line those shifty real estate agents use in ads, just doesn’t pull like it used to.

WalkJogRun.net - This site lets you draw your own routes on a Google Map, and it adds up the distance of that route. As a big runner, this is sweet. I’m able to map out my runs, create new ones based on distance, and save/bookmark them. If that wasn’t cool enough, it also lets you browse the routes others are running, in your city and all over.