Maybe that’s because maps are reminders that there is much, much more out there than what you’ve seen…

Anyway, Google has smartly added photos to Google Maps local search, so that travelers can compare geographies and buildings. This is great from a user perspective and a great opportunity for anybody with a brick-and-mortar business to show off the goods.

"Now you can compare the sea views and room interiors for beachfront hotels in Honolulu," writes Jess Lee, product manager for Google Maps, "or drool over the dishes served at steakhouses in Boston. Google Maps also includes pictures of buildings, storefronts, signs, and logos—especially helpful if you’re going somewhere for the first time."

Business owners can upload photos to the service, highlighting the best of what they have to offer.

But the most helpful, from a traveling user’s perspective, are building photos in places like Tokyo, where, unless you can read a blend of the three alphabets, or can decipher the weird mathematics of how addresses are formed (seems like there was counting of steps involved), a photo of a specific building can be ENORMOUSLY helpful.

Sorry about the shouting.

Another cool thing Google Maps related is a new site in development called 71Miles.com, a project based on a statistic that the majority of road trips occur within 71 miles from home. That’s a better place to be, if you ask me – when I heard most car accidents happen within five miles of home, I decided it best to move.

Rim shot.

So the creators of the site are working on an online repository of weekend trip destinations around various US cities for those that just want to get away. Right now they’ve only got Northern California covered, because everything starts there these days and, presumably within the next decade, those great nature spots in Kentucky will be covered.

When the end of the world happens, I want to be in Kentucky. Everything happens five years later here.

So, if you want details about Cumberland Falls and the mysterious Moonbow, Natural Bridge and the Red River Gorge, or Mammoth Caves, the longest cave system on the planet, you’ll have to wait till we get around to telling you about it.