By playing with the Google Maps API, Kim Asendorf put together this randomly-generating series: every time you click refresh, a new, weird map of the world pops up. You might get a day-glo view of only city roads, or all the rivers in the world might be color-coded, while borders between countries disappear completely. Check it out.

Consider it civilian reconnaissance. Protesters in Turkey are using Google Maps to track police movement, plot out barricades, and rally together.

If you moved away from a place soon after starting kindergarten and never went back-how much would you remember about the town? Just a corner of a distinctive building, perhaps, or a stand of trees under which you liked to play.

The 21,000 residents of Namie-machi, Japan, haven't been able to return to their hometown since March 2011. The radiation there from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster is still too high. But now they, and the rest of the world, can take a virtual tour through the town's streets.

Google Maps' Street View has become more than just a way to find your way around or look at creepy images of your own house on the web. It's now a way to explore parts of the world most of us are way too lazy to visit. You can go to the Grand Canyon, or the Amazon rainforest, or see parts of North Korea. You can even explore inside offices and underwater.

You can now see North Korea without ever leaving your living room. New data added to Google Maps has made it possible to virtually explore this notoriously isolated country.