Some more map-related findings: a recent BBC story:

As the communal bloodshed has worsened, some Iraqis have set up advice websites to help others avoid the death squads. One tip - on the Iraq League site, one of the best known - is for people to draw up maps of their local area using Google Earth's detailed imagery of Baghdad so they can work out escape routes and routes to block... It's thought that insurgents have also used the map site, examining the detailed images to pick out potential targets.

Google also sends a Google Earth bulletin, 'the Sightseer'. Yesterday's included info on the way some human rights organisations are using it. The American Associaton for the Advancement of Science has some maps comparing before-and-after images in both Zimbabwe and Chad. As it happens, super-imposing them on Google Earth is less than enlightening: their website explains them better. A full list of the AAAS' case studies is here.

Another example is in the Lebanon; again, their website is better than the attempt to plaster it over Google Earth.

Falluja would be another one to get hold of - as this site shows, the data's there. Shouldn't someone be doing a systematic before and after to find out how much of the city was destroyed in that attack?

On a more pleasant note, frontporchforum.com is using Google maps to create neighbourhood forums - and they seem to be really successful. Gonna keep on saying it: what great public services Google provides! If only Ordnance Survey would learn something from them... (what, like advertise more, you mean...?)