I've long thought that Google Maps API was great not just for the maps, but for other uses. I did something a bit similar a few years ago for a university proj

I've long thought that Google Maps API was great not just for the maps, but for other uses. I did something a bit similar a few years ago for a university project: http://qut.rodh.org http://qut.rodh.org I've used the maps API but rejected the whole maps/satellite imagery part of it, and added my own map of the university. In the back end the vending machine staff can move and place the vending machines on the map. It uses the long/lat functionality (but not the real long/lat values) to work out the closest machines to you etc. The javascript isn't nearly as nice as the Khan Academy one (was one of my first Javascript heavy sites) and I'm sure there's a few bugs (site hasn't been used in years). Perhaps with HTML5 there might be better ways of doing this but Google Maps has a great framework now for doing some cool cross browser things. Nice work!