How to stalk everybody on the planet

At this point, everyone knows what a powerful tool Google can be if you’re looking to dig up information on other people. Well, recently, I stumbled across a couple websites that allow you to use Google to spy on pretty much the entire world, all at once. But not in the way you’d expect.

I’m referring to two flashy mashups of Google Maps and Flickr: Flickrvision and Earth Album.

Earth Album harvests Flickr’s most interesting photos, then displays the results for a given country when you click on the map.

Flickrvision is something a little more startling: It shows you a satellite’s-eye view of photos being uploaded in real time, sending that little digital globe spinning with every new submission. (For an extra dose of voyeurism, you can also check out Twittervision — although in this case, I think a picture really is worth a thousand words.)

Happy gawking!

Other nifty map-related sites:
breathingearth.net | Watch the population rise and fall in real time! See the carbon emissions of countries around the world! This is how the planet “breathes.”
opentopia.com/sunlightmaprect.html | Shows what parts of the earth are currently goth-friendly, and which parts are subjected to the sun’s burny rays (or, if you live in Seattle, coated in a light gray drizzlemist).
google.com/sky | No longer do you have to download Google Earth to mess around with the digital heavens — you can do it right in your browser!

Now, I know I’m barely scratching the surface of this topic here (and intentionally so, since I could easily spend the rest of my life researching this). Got your own favorite map sites? We’d love to hear about them!