One of the things I like the most about Clustr is that it will generate shape(file)s for any old list of geographic coordinates. Now that most of the hassle of setting up Clustr has been (mostly) removed, the only question left is: What do you want to render?

With the ability to forward emails directly to Backpack, create links, add images, and more, Backpack is incredibly robust in capturing a range of information. You can even embed live Google Maps which is absolutely brilliant for travel.

Google is finally figuring out that short links are just easier to deal with, especially on a mobile phone. No, it is not rolling out its own URL shortening service just yet (bit.ly, stand down). But today it is introducing what it calls “smart links” to the mobile version of Gmail.

Once you link your AdWords campaign to your Google business center account, Google will dynamically match a business’s locations to a user’s location or search terms and show the appropriate address with text ads.

If you’re an iPhone user, you might have been waiting for Google Latitude, our service that lets you see where your friends are, which has not been available on iPhone. Well, today we’re releasing Google Latitude for iPhone and iPod touch as a web application running on iPhone’s Safari browser.

You can now bring the power of MapQuest routing to your application, whether it runs on a server or in the browser.

The geocoder was built as part of our FGDC CAP Grant to help GeoEnable Government Tabular Data and utilizes the free and open TIGER/Line street data as well as various address parsing and metaphone components for US level address parsing. Also, not everyone can call to a web-service, abide by the terms of service, or be limited by the speed and amount of geocoding queries.

If you are using either Google Chrome 2.0+ or Mozilla FireFox 3.5+, you’ll now notice a little dot in the upper left-hand corner of Maps, just above the Street View guy. If you click that dot, Google Maps will show you your location on the map.