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Continuing a welcome trend of mashing together various parts of its empire, Google has [added maps to Google Book Search][1]. Currently the feature is far from universal, but in those places where it's most applicable, e.g. guidebooks, the "about this book" page now features a Google map with markers representing all the locations mentioned in the book.
The Google Book Search blog says:
>When our automatic techniques determine that there are a good number of quality locations from a book to show you, you'll find a map on the "About this book" page.
What constitutes "quality locations" is anyone's guess, but a few random searches outside the guidebook genre turned up some interesting maps including one for Bram Stoker's *[Dracula][4]* and Neal Stephenson's globe trotting *[Cryptonomicon][5]*. The Google Book Blog lists some other, non-guide examples including *[The Travels of Marco Polo][3]* and *[Around The World In Eighty Days][2]*.
Each map pin has shows the revelant text from the book and there's a direct link to that page in the book which allows you to see if the information contained is germane to your needs.
While it's fun to zoom to locations in Jules Verne's classic, it may not ultimately be very useful, however, for those looking for a guidebook, the new mapping features are quite helpful.
Unfortunately in some cases the mapping data is not particularly relevant. For instance in the Dracula link given above one of the listings is for Waterloo, Canada (just outside of Toronto) when in fact the book is referring to the more famous [Waterloo][6] of present day Belgium.
Of course a Google search for Waterloo also brings up the Canadian city far ahead of the site in belgium, but since standard Google searches aren't contextual, that isn't really a problem. But maps within Google Books are contextual and somewhat misleading as a result.
Technical quibbles aside, the maps-books mash-up is still quite fun and I'm looking forward to seeing it improve over time.
Mapping for the [Rough Guide to Guatamala][7]:
Example of highlighted in-book reference:
[7]: http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN1858288487&id=zS3TjIGbOXkC&dq=rough+Guide+to+Guatamala "Rough Guide to Guatamala"
[6]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Waterloo "Wikipedia: Battle of Waterloo"
[3]: http://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC02715307 "The Travels of Marco Polo"
[2]: http://books.google.com/books?id=2_OflXjThdIC "Around the World in Eighty Days"
[1]: http://booksearch.blogspot.com/2007/01/books-mapped.html "Google Book Search Adds Maps"
[4]: http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0486411095&id=1I1wtCeJ1nAC&dq=Dracula "Bram Stoker Dracula"
[5]: http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0380788624&id=FUha9wJrSXMC&dq=Cryptonomicon "Cryptonomicon"
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