Over the course of the weekend I used the internet to find places most of you out there are aware of to get good stuff cheap. Most of you will know what these places/events are, but it’s how you find them that’s the important part.

Using Google Maps, with the category operator you can quickly find what you’re looking for in or near your local area.

For this example we’ll use Flea Markets, Thrift Stores and Estate Sales.

Flea Markets
(International visitors: flea market defined)

Usage: city state category:Flea Markets
Example using Tampa Florida

Thrift Stores
(International visitors: thrift store defined)

Usage: city state category:Thrift Stores
Example using Boston Massachusetts

Estate Sale
(International visitors: estate sale defined)

Usage: city state category:Estate Appraisal & Sales
Example using Dallas Texas

How do you find other categories in Google Maps?

Instead of using the category operator, just use your town/state and what you’re looking for when searching. Any category that appears in the list (there may be several) will sort by that category only.

Example: If I search for Tampa FL cars, I get a ton of listings.  But at the top left, I see the categories, and they look like this:

Note where it says Categories: Auto Repair, Auto Dealers Used Cars. Clicking one will sort by that category only.

Almost anything you search for in Google Maps will have a category for it. Use it and use it often. You will most likely discover many businesses you didn’t know existed that in turn give you more choices to shop for better deals.

I’ve mentioned this before but it bears mentioning again: Google Street Views freaks a lot of people out.  And I mean a lot of people.

This time it’s stirred up privacy concerns in Baltimore where some are getting a bit perturbed at the fact that no matter how much effort you put into your personal privacy on the internet, your house is still visible to anyone who wants to see it if in Street Views. And if your cars are in the driveway, those are visible as well.

The most interesting part about the article is that it states yes, you can make a request to have Google remove images of your home from its database, but technically they don’t have to; that’s the scary part. Fortunately the big G does honor requests without complaint.

Personally I feel it’s all too easy for a burglar to case properties using Street Views. All he or she has to do is go online and look for homes with obvious security flaws (which are plainly visible most of the time), mark target homes and that’s that. That’s just way too easy.

And for those who say, "I don’t worry, my home is secure!", that’s what most people say before their houses get broken into.

I do sincerely appreciate what Google Street Views does as a public good, however I can totally understand the privacy concerns.

Is your house on Google Maps Street Views? And if yes, does it bother you?

Let us know in the comments.

A really cool thing (for lack of better words) I ran across is something called MappedUp.

MappedUp is an application that tracks a large number of RSS news sources and displays their latest items on a world map.

You can download MappedUp as a screensaver or active desktop. You can also download MappedUp for your blog or website.

If you take a look at their website, you can see what I mean. The tools is customizable by keywords so you can see the items with only the stuff you are interested in. The only catch is you have to use the feeds available through MappedUp so it can properly display them on the map. Despite this limitation, it is still a cool looking project which will probably continue to grow.

Something which is not readily obvious in Google Maps is the ability to find real estate listings. And no, it’s not just for new houses. It also includes rentals, foreclosures (good for the bargain hunter) and so on.

Here’s how to do it:

Load up Google Maps and click “My Maps” to the left.

Looks like this:

Continued

The little orange guy in Google Maps as most people know is the character you see in the Street Views function. The recent update to the Google Maps service definitely puts greater emphasis on this.

For example:

The Street Views icon (i.e. the orange guy) is now directly on top of the zoom slider…

…and yes it’s functional.

While zoomed in on a map you can click the orange guy, drag and drop and you’ll get the Street View. While dragging a thumbnail appears before you drop (nice touch).

Where’s the "Street Views" button?

Gone. You have to know to click on the orange guy above the zoom slider now. Yes that’s one step backwards usability-wise. However, being the orange-guy icon is so obvious it shouldn’t be a big deal for most people to find it.

My favorite mapping product on the internet is Google Maps. I use if often and said honestly, nobody else comes close in speed and ease of use. Live Maps comes close but still doesn’t cut the mustard, so to speak. Yahoo! Maps puts very annoying animated advertisements in their mapping product and MapQuest is simply old and clunky to use – not to mention it is also chock full of annoying animated advertisements. Continued

(click above image to see full size)

Just for kicks recently I checked out Microsoft Live Maps with Virtual Earth 3D (Beta) installed.

Summed up: It kicks ass.

No, it does not have all the features of Google Maps/Earth (such as Street Views,) however it looks far better, particularly with “Bird’s eye” option enabled. I was amazed at how good it looks. We’re talking crisp clean very detailed photos you can map with.

I will be doing a video on this soon showing what you can do with Live Maps. There are both pros and cons. Stay tuned for it.

One final note: Notice the screen shot was taken with the Firefox browser. Yes, Virtual Earth 3D works both in FF and IE (but not sure about Opera, didn’t test on that one.)

There is a way to directly send a Google Maps location to just about any mobile Garmin GPS device (StreetPilot, nuvi, zumo, etc.)

Step 1.

If you haven’t done so, install the latest Garmin USB drivers.

Install the Garmin Communicator Plugin (this is so your web browser can “talk” to Google Maps correctly). Remember to restart your web browser after installing the plugin (just like any other plugin after installation).

Plug in your Garmin GPS to your computer via USB.

Step 2.

Go to maps.google.com, map a location first, then click Send.

Step 3.

Select GPS, select brand as Garmin and click the Send button at the bottom.

Step 4.

You will then be taken to the Garmin web site. If all goes well, your GPS is detected and an orange “Send to GPS” button is present. Click that button.

Important note: If the GPS is not found by your computer, confirm it’s plugged in via USB and that it is detected properly.

Once after sending to your Garmin GPS, you should see this under the map:

Click the “here” link will take you back to Google Maps.

Step 5.

Check to see if the Favorite was sent to your Garmin GPS and…

…ta-da, there it is!