The idea: Most people use Google Maps to find directions to the pub or look at a satellite photo of their house. But Google created the site with a back door, allowing programmers and hackers to use the map data in their own sites, inventing new ways to use the maps to make cool things.

Find celebrities: The New York celebrity blog Gawker run a real-time map that shows where celebrities have been spotted around NYC. Typical entry: “Penn Plaza, 9am: Kiefer Sutherland wearing just a thin, open button-down shirt with a black T-shirt underneath it. It was -6 degrees at this point.”

Go sightseeing: A lot of people have spent a lot of time looking at the satellite photos on Google Maps, finding numerous strange things, from the town of F****** in Austria to what looked a lot like a Chinese aircraft carrier, landlocked in a small lake 30 miles from the sea. After some research it turned out to be a “military education centre” for children. Perhaps the most famous thing ever spotted was a rock formation in Canada that looks an awful lot like a Native American listening to an iPod. Google tourists have also found naked people, sports matches, lots of aircraft and even a giant insect (now sadly airbrushed out)

Settle pub arguments: If you dug a really deep hole to the other side of the world, where would you come out? Several Google Map hacks can answer that question. If you’re in Britain, the slightly disappointing answer is “In the sea, southeast of New Zealand”. Web TV star Ze Frank ran an elaborate competition encouraging his viewers to make earth sandwiches by placing slices of bread on opposite sides of the globe.

Follow Jack Bauer: There are loads of pop-culture map remixes. You can follow Jack Bauer’s progress across LA during the latest season of 24, find where every episode of Dr Who was filmed, or find an island in the Pacific which could possibly be the one featured in Lost - a little green island, close to the grid reference 4 8 15 16 23 42. For the more obscure film fan, there's a page devoted to Claude Lelouch's infamous film 'C'était un rendez-vous', in which the director drives a Mercedes at high speed around Paris. On the page, you can watch the film and follow the route in an animated map.

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