Vizu describes this as “the addition of vote maps to its poll results,” and in a press release, continues, “The new interactive vote maps are a mashup powered by Google and allow Vizu users to see exactly where votes are being cast.  The color-coded responses can be viewed from a world view all the way down to the zip code level.”

In honor of all the ongoing Harry Potter buzz, I looked at a map following a “What’s your favorite book in the series?” poll; a bunch of colored balloons show the results on a “map view” of the U.S. (satellite and hybrid shots are also available).  Everything worked flawlessly; I also discovered that very few people west of Kansas like “The Order of the Phoenix” over the other Potter stories.

Do you want to know why?  I have no clue, but Dan Beltramo, Vizu’s CEO, states, “Our users are curious by nature so adding maps to our polls was a natural fit for Vizu.”  Fair enough.

One last, rather depressing, note on that whole “see what the world thinks” phrase: while looking for a poll to cite in this article, I browsed through “All Categories” and sorted by the “Popularity Index.”  Almost every result on the first three pages of results related to the show “Big Brother.”

Hat tip to VentureBeat’s Eric Eldon.