We Map .. Because We Can?

Google Maps are addictive. 

Certainly, there are some truly useful ones. 

I've used Google Maps overlaid with user photos from Panorma to help plan vacations. Real Estate site Zillow uses Microsoft Virtual Earth Maps to help check out real estate. 

But many times, people create maps for the same reason President Clinton claimed was behind his Lewinski-gate affair: "I did it for the worst possible reason; because I could."

For example, online shoe retailer Zappos.com has a live map of its sales. Go there and you can see thumbnails of Zappos' products slowly pop up all across the nation, as they happen. It's strangely mesmerizing, although I can't see any utility. Someone in Tennessee just bought pink boots; is a cold-spell going South? 

Then, there is today's LA Times, with a somewhat amusing article on California's 250 top tax scofflaws.  

The whole list is mapped by zip codes (thankfully, common sense had a minor victory and street addresses aren't listed. That may be only because the government doesn't report them.)

So, we can see that supposed comic Sinbad, owes 2,522,424.10 and lives in Illinois. 

Perhaps both facts -- his debt and his residence -- are comforting to supporters of Hilary Clinton's failed Democratic Presidential campaign who remember Sinbad's attacks. 

What goes around comes around. Hey, maybe we can map political Karma.