Thursday, April 10, 2008

Track the Olympic Torch Relay

"An ongoing tradition from 766 B.C. has been to ignite the torch at the ancient site in Olympia, Greece. From March 24th until the start of August, the Torch Relay will travel across Greece, into Beijing, and then around the world through cities, oceans, and even the world’s highest mountain, Mt. Qomolangma (Mt. Everest). The relay's purpose is to spread the Olympic spirit as well as the message of peace and friendship, and also ignite the passion of the people around the world."

The Torch Relay can be followed using Google Maps and Google Earth. Google uses this opportunity to show that maps are valuable to track events and see the big picture, but it would've been nice to also see photos, videos and news related to this event. It's so easy to mix content from different sites and create something valuable like the iGoogle page for the Rugby World Cup or the page for Australia's Federal Election. The pages could also be used to attract more content: YouTube video responses, contributions on personalized maps, blog posts.