Here are the news stories that have interested me this evening:

Facebook users suffer viral surge
I don’t like accepting new Facebook applications at the best of times.  Now I’ll be even more careful!

CIA destroyed 92 interview tapes
News about how the CIA treated interview tapes or terror suspects

University quiz team disqualified
The “University Challenge” winners have been disqualified because one member of the team was no longer a student.

The World’s financial system is going through a crisis, countries such as Germany are entering a depression.  That’s the news that I hear every day in the news.

Are these tough times?

Strangely enough, my business is doing quite well considering the current economic climate.  I think that people are more willing to invest a small amount in having a computer problem fixed, rather than the larger - more tempting - amount of buying a new one instead.  That is, of course, good for me as a service provider, even if it’s not such good news for manufacturers.

Despite this, I’ve still decided that it is time to start reading Robert H. Schuller’s book “Tough Times Never Last, But Tough People Do!“, something I first read about on another blog.  The first chapter alone, in which he talks about one of his own experiences, left me thinking “OK, it’s not that bad yet”, and I can’t wait to read the rest of the book.

It was this article in the Telegraph that got me thinking about the way in which I use Google Maps.

The article itself is actually about Google Earth - a programme that can be installed on a computer to view Google’s aerial photos of the World.  I first came into contact with it a few years ago on a customer’s computer, but I have, as yet, never installed it on a computer of my own.  Instead, I use Google Maps.

Now, I am aware that Google Earth offers more features, such as being able to tilt the map and get a sort of 3D representation of the area that I am viewing, but for my daily purposes the Maps version is sufficient.

So how do I use it?  Well, the most obvious way is to look up addresses on the maps.  Whenever I have a new address to go to (usually to visit a new customer) then I look it up on Google Maps.  Knowing the area so well, that is usually sufficient for me to know where a particular street is.  Otherwise, I can print off the map of the area around the street that I have to go to, and that will normally be enough.

But if I don’t know the area that I am going to at all, such as some areas of Frankfurt, then will often take a look at the aerial view to see what the roads there are like.  For example, are there parking spaces near where I going to?  It can also be helpful to zoom in the road markings to see if there are any “no left turn” type of junctions on my route.

However, there are many more features to Google Maps that I occasionally use.  There is the ability to view photos that have been taken by other people at specific locations on the maps, so it is interesting to see pictures of places that I have visited, sometimes many years ago.  Of course, I can also look at places that I hear or read about, but will probably never get the chance to visit, such as Tristan da Cuhna in the South Atlantic.

Recently Google have been adding their “Street View” feature to a number of places that I have been to, most recently I was able to look at areas of Madrid that I visited in April.

Finally, there is a more serious side to how I use Google Maps.  Not only can I embed maps in blog posts to show where a particular place is that I have written about, but I can also place advertising on the map for the customers who’s websites I either create or optimise.

All in all, I may not be addicted to Google Maps as the Telegraph article suggested, but I certainly make good use of it.