The 10 newest/coolest geo-mapping apps for RE Bloggers

Incorporating maps into your blog or website can be an engaging and exciting way to snag your readers’ attention.  New technology has allowed mapping to become nearly a living breathing thing which you can create, explore and share.  It’s not your momma’s flat paper map anymore!

Here’s a snapshot of some really cool things you can do with geo-mapping to snazz up your blog, engage your readers and provide a variety of content on your blog or website..

• Google Maps Mania: Microsoft Street Slide – this creates a much more panoramic view of a street rather than the slightly dizzying effect of Google Street Views.  Watch the video demo to see it in action.  You could create your own YouTube video screen capture of a virtual tour of your town’s Main Street or other hot spot.
• Google Maps in 3D – as this develops further, you can imagine the uses for it, especially those with tall condo listings and other larger properties.  How amazingly cool!  The end to pancake-flat buildings.
• TagWhat – is a new messaging app which allows you to share messages using augmented reality with your friends and followers!  Add text, urls, photos, phone numbers, or videos to your tags.  How cool is that?!
• Schmap – is an easy to use and engaging app where you can share events such as open houses, on twitter, etc. with a map, directions, info, photos, etc.  Schmap also provides online guides for many cities and if you post your geo-tagged photos to flickr  they may highlight one of them in their city guides.  We’ve been fortunate enough to have been chosen for three Miami guides so far!  HUGE Bonus – they are giving away 10,000 2 Year Pro Memberships here!
• Not For Tourists – a growing collection of city maps by and for locals.  You can apply to be an editor for your local community and you can create custom maps to embed into your blogs.
• RealBird Facebook Pages for your Listings – with the click of a mouse you can create facebook fan pages for each listing and then share them, promote them for pennies to a hyper-targeted audience and make your seller really really happy having their own fan page for their listing.
• Where do you Go? create a heat-map of your foursquare check-ins, showing you’re the man about town! (or gal)
• Facebook stories on Bing Maps – share stories of facebook and Bing will now add them to their map mashup. Our new blog, TheCoralGablesStory, heavily builds on this community, story, hyper local enthusiasm.
• KinoMaps – if you create video while driving (read more in this previous article on creating community videos), you can use KinoMaps to create an embeddable map to accompany it your video, showing your route.
• Isochrone Maps – create maps for drive times during certain times of day or night.  View the very cool demo they did of London at night. If you have properties which have longer drive times (say to an airport or down town) you could highlight this info for potential buyers to alleviate concerns.

There are literally thousands and thousands of map apps out there and this is just a random snapshot for you to spark your imagination.  I am sure you have plenty more apps that you love and I’d love to hear about them in the comments below!

Bonus – if you have a GPS, you can likely load your buyer tour addresses into MapQuest or Google Maps, create your tour then export to your GPS so you are all pre-loaded before you ever get behind the wheel.