What Mapquest is looking like these days : http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?city=Wilkes%2dBarre&state=PA&country=United%20States (still no satellite photos).

Web 2.0 for Designers :
“… content will be more important than its container in this next phase [of the Web]…Tom Curley, CEO, Associated Press (keynote speech to the Online News Association Conference on Nov. 12, 2004. According to Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com, "Web 2.0 is a world of thin front ends and powerful back ends". : http://www.masternewmedia.org/news/2005/08/30/what_is_web_20.htm on article at http://www.digital-web.com/articles/web_2_for_designers/
- Writing semantic markup (transition to XML)
- Providing Web services (moving away from place)
- Remixing content (about when and what, not who or why)
- Emergent navigation and relevance (users are in control)
- Adding metadata over time (communities building social information)
- Shift to programming (separation of structure and style)

http://www.gmdir.com/ has approximately 175 Google Map examples in the Directory todate.

Here is a simple Google API example that gets one into the world of; var xmlFileName = "datawhatever.xml" http://www.fadedshadow.com/mapping/appmaptest3.php (but requires a php server? is there a way to use a simple Excel.xls file to start learning about this approach?), or can I use something like this sample xml file? http://www.fadedshadow.com/mapping/data-all.xml
Good example using "layers" notion : http://lordkingsquirrel.com/ebgmp/mac_county.html
Image and zoom functionality included in pop-up bubble : http://globalcoordinate.com/
Includes ability to add a point and a photo corresponding to that location : http://www.panoramio.com/
SourceForge Google Maps hacking discussion : http://sourceforge.net/search/?type_of_search=forums&forum_id=388073&group_id=113492&words=google+map

An example of the "Band Apart" philosophy : (Die Außenseiterbande) http://www.bfi.org.uk/booksvideo/video/details/bandeapart/background.html

"Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
"It's not as if one day you'll just look down, and discover that you're on the yellow brick road, living the life of your dreams; but that one day you'll just look back and discover you always have been." - The Universe