Last week saw the release of MAPme.com, a new social mapping site which allows special interest groups to create and contribute information to maps by suggesting 'Hotspots' that other members of a map might be intested in...
http://www.mapme.com/map/Surfing

This is a community surfing map someone has created and features a number of surfing Hotspots around Australia. Other surfers can leave comments or photos or even submit their own locations. Usually, these suggestions will either be added directly to each map, or they go into a moderation queue assigned to the map owner. It depends on the what sort of map the owner has created.

“Each community map is like a new post in a geographic forum”, says John McCann, who managed the development of the site. “We have given the map owners as much flexibility as they could ever need in terms of being able to moderate location data, but we've also allowed for options for public and personal maps – public maps are generally a free for all, and personal maps are for mostly private use”.

While community mapping is relatively new concept and something that hasn't really taken the online world by storm (yet), MAPme.com is also excellent for creating travel or city guides that are useful in their own right. Take for example this guide to Tokyo's coolest Neighbourhoods;


http://www.mapme.com/map/tokyoneighbourhoods

Robert Rawson, the creator of MAPme.com explains that the idea was conceived as a “map creation tool which takes mapping with Google Maps to the next level - visitors to our site can easily create a map using a range of unique icon designs and they can also control how visitors to their map can interact with it”.

Owners of maps can moderate comments, photos and even Youtube videos that other people have suggested for particular 'Hotspots' on their map, or they can even allow the general public to add new locations. This information can be exported in GPX format (easily transferrable to portable GPS devices) or by KML.

Overall, MAPme.com makes creating a map a lot easier and a lot more fun then using Google Maps. The ability to export a map widget for use on your own website is in the pipeline and due for release in the next month or so (as is a Facebook application). Overall, MAPme is a great looking new site in the ilk of Platial.com and Flagr.com – once there are some more categories to work with, and an exportable map feature, this could easily be the best web 2.0 map creation site to grace the internet.