The Global Disaster Relief is an initiative started by Facebook to help raise awareness of natural disasters taking place across the globe. The page was started as a response to the earthquake which devastated Haiti. It’s safe to say the …

According to Techcrunch, app store veteran, UrbanSpoon, has officially launched their iPad app. I agree with them in that the iPad app will not be useful for quick dinner solutions (like it is when firing up the app on an iPhone), however the iPad app will be useful for longer, more thoughtful decisions. Details of the UrbanSpoon iPad app below:

Pamela Fox, of Google Developer Programs, and colleague Austin Chau "hacked up" a new calendar for the developer community at large. Developers will be able to list their upcoming events and parties.

Microsoft has purchased UK online mapping company Multimap.

Google Maps replaced the button Hybrid with a button reading Terrain (Hybrid used to show a mix between satellite imagery and maps data, such as streets or borders).

Google is experimenting with some very cool options for searching. First off, they have show new view: keywords that display additional ways to view / filter search results:

Yahoo’s going to Bellevue, but it’s Bellevue, Washington, and not New York’s Bellevue Hospital Center, in which the search company will open an office.  You may still have to question Yahoo’s sanity, though, as this move puts it in Microsoft’s territory.

Over 2.7 billion addresses have been charted by researchers performing the first Internet census since 1982.

A good portion of our blog readers are small business owners looking to grow their business by expanding their online efforts, or just getting started with their online efforts.

Users of Ask City can whip out their drawing tools, select an area on a map, search for a relevant business or event, and embed that map on their sites or blogs.

Google’s actions sometimes generate warm fuzzies.  The company can also be kind of creepy.  But in an article titled “Another Reason to Hate Google,” Joseph Farah took it a step further, and wrote, “I want to illustrate to you just how rotten and contemptible the lying thieves who run that corporate monstrosity really are.”

An interesting find in this clever Yahoo! Pipe that mashes up news (topic of your choice) with a Yahoo! map.

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation will meet in Australia’s largest city in about three weeks’ time, but if you seek Google’s help to look at Sydney, you may be out of luck – Google Maps images of the area have become rather fuzzy.

Over the past week or so, Britain has been hit by some really nasty flooding – the worst in 60 years.  Fortunately, no deaths or serious injuries have been reported, and it’s possible that Google helped bring about this positive outcome.

Kermit the Frog once sang that it wasn’t easy being green, but the Sundance Channel has found that easy to do with Google Maps.

Presidents Bush and Putin may not be on the best of terms, but the Russian government is embracing (or at least nodding to) Google; a changed law has allowed the American search engine giant to release a Russia-specific mapping service.

Official Google Blog: Put your photos on a map, and Picasa on your phone: A new Picassa option, ‘Map My Photos’ lets you show exactly where you took your favorite snapshots.

When you share an album with friends, they can see your best photos arrayed on a map (or even Google Earth). It’s the perfect way to showcase a memorable road trip or a globe-trotting vacation.

Windows Live Search added a new type of Instant Answer: Interactive maps at the top of search results. If you search for an address or a place, Live Search should detect that and put a map of that place right at the top. Search for “map” and it will try to figure out where you are (based on IP) and show you a map of your current location.

It may not be fatal, but it’s a pretty bad disease nonetheless; according to Amnesty International, “The virus of Internet repression is spreading.”

If you ride some form of public transportation – be it subways, trains, or buses – you may know about Google Transit, which helps users “[c]reate your own transit trip, complete with itineraries and maps.”  That service worked just fine (within a few areas), but the search engine company now plans to incorporate much more information into Google Maps and Google Earth.

Google Maps and Microsoft Live Search Maps released new ways of looking at the world through their products at the Where 2.0 conference.

Microsoft Live Search Maps has added a number of cities in 3-D to their service, among them New York City.

The 3-D images of New York City include aerial views of Times Square, Central Park, Wall Street and other well-known locations. The mapping service will also offer local listings, ratings, reviews and driving directions.

In addtition Live Search Maps will also offer real-time traffic information and custom maps that users can create and use for themselves or share with others.