Update: The day came for the big game, but apparnetly too much interest had been generated because the game’s site has been down most of the day.

Original Article: Tomorrow (September 9), a giant worldwide game of Monopoly will commence, using the real world. That is, the real world on Google Maps. Hasbro, the creators of the classic board game, are launching the game called, "Monopoly City Streets," in which players will fight for the largest empire in the world.

Google introduced its Street View Partner Program today. This lets organizations and businesses apply to have their property featured in Street View on Google Maps, Google Earth, and Google Maps for Mobile.

Google is adding a good deal of the functionality from Google maps to Google Maps for Mobile. This includes the ability to access and interact with different layers like Traffic, My Maps, and Search layers at the same time.

Microsoft has introduced a new version of MSN City Guides in a move the company calls "one step in a long term plan to help users stay in the know wherever they are."

The new MSN City Guides makes ample use of Live Search and Live Search Maps as well as video and social media. Users can share information through Windows Live and Facebook. Microsoft says this makes event organization easy.

Google has added features to Google Maps that let you save, annotate, and share directions using My Maps. Users can save driving directions by simply clicking the  "save to my maps" link below the directions.

Google’s changing it up, and local search optimization just became very, very important.

It used to be a searcher had to be very specific about a query to bring back local results. To borrow from Search Engine Guide’s Miriam Ellis, who tips us off to the changes in the usual Google “10 pack,” or the top ten search results, a search for “chiropractor” reveals just how geographically targeted Google’s results are now.

Google has introduced an imagery partner program where people can submit imagery for Google Earth if they feel they have a better version of a shot that Google currently has.

Google has introduced the Transit Layer on Google Maps for over 50 cities around the world. The goal is to make finding public transportation info easier for citizens and tourists. When viewing applicable cities in Google Maps, if you want to access the Transit Layer, simply click the More button and select the Transit tab.

Google’s Blogger has addd a feature to the new post editor in Blogger in Draft. Blogger in Draft is a special version of Blogger where they try out new features before they release them to everyone. Kind of like Google Labs. With geotagging, you can add a location to your each of your blog posts, like with time stamps.

Google is now making it easier to find directions to businesses via Google Maps for Mobile. Now users can get directions by entering the name of the business in the start or end point fields. Google illustrates this with a Starbucks example on the Google Mobile Blog:

Google’s Street View feature on Google Maps is certainly no stranger to privacy concerns. It has attracted lawsuits, but it is still moving right along. Google even dismissed one lawsuit bringer as being "out of touch with the real world."

Google introduced today My Maps Editor for Android. It is a tool that allows you to created, edit, share, and view personalized maps on Android phones synched with the My Maps tab on Google Maps.

So what are some practical uses for this? Google Software Engineer Brian Cornell says: There are plenty of ways to put this to good use during the holiday season: