| "Google's My Maps is yet another cool tool offered by the always evolving Internet giant. " " and save or share them with friends or the world. Mashup, by the way, is techno-jargon for a Web site or service that combines content from multiple sources." "It let me throw together a walking tour of Boston complete with pictures and video in under 20 minutes." "Google's My Maps was released today and is a tool aimed at non-techies empowering them to create Google Maps mashups. Until today, customizing Google maps has been the exclusive domain of experienced software developers. Here is a link to PC World's " "You can browse maps that have already been created, or you can dive in and create your own like I did. Check out Google's example of a map it created to demonstrate the power of My Maps. One is called " "Building a basic Google My Map is easy. But adding multimedia elements to Google My Maps is not so simple -� despite what Google claims." "To get started with Google's My Maps you'll need a Google account. Once you've signed in, select Google Maps and then choose the My Maps tab. Using four My Map tools (see image below) you can create placemarks, draw lines or shapes, and navigate your map." "Once you create a placemark you'll want to add content to it. To do this just hit the "edit" button. Now you can add images, video, or text. (see image below for My Maps in edit mode)" "Creating a starting point and route with annotations is easy. More challenging will be adding multimedia elements to your Google My Map. You can�t insert an image by uploading it to Google Maps. Instead, you have to have the exact Internet URL address of the image you want to add." "To add your own images to your Google My Map you�ll have to put them on a public Web site such as " ", or on server space offered by your Internet service provider. Once you upload your
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