The Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA) has developed some free software gadgetry implementing the google maps API. ‘Google Map Creator‘ allows a user to perform thematic mapping from ESRI shapefile based data within google maps. The software magically spits out a html containing a default map layout, which can be customized to your liking. One limitation, however is it’s ability to only display a single thematic layer.

CASA has also developed another neat application for tiling large (in their example, non-spatial) images, called “Google Maps Image Cutter‘. The example is worth checking out! Seems Gmaps can do more than just maps!