But back on topic, with mobile access to this combination of tools I can easily imagine suddenly remembering something I forgot to get before leaving home and being able to simply check what’s closest to the next stop. Much easier than just going to the nearest place you know of every time.

Of course, those could be used for more than shopping. Scavenger hunts, planning road trips. Maybe improve upon this pub crawl generator.

I’ve seen a wide variety of mash-up style walking maps that people have labored over to provide their ‘personal maps’ of various cities. It would be great to not only be able to create walking maps with shops and other services, but to be able to share your personal favorites in a Web 2.0 style service.

Could be a lot of fun, in addition to being flat out useful!

I’m looking forward to seeing how this all takes shape. I think that some type of integration between maps/transit/local is what we will see in the future.

Imagine being able to make a walking/subway map through Boston, and have all of the book stores (they have some nice ones there) shown on the map, regardless of whether or not they have paid.

And being able to change the map around so that you can go along a path that has the most bookstores as you walk, or take the subway.

Maybe the “paid” advertising part of this would be to enable places to include information about what goods and services that they offer.

Show me how to get to the subway or train, places where I can stop along the way (of my choice), and what times I need to be there to catch a ride.

I’d imagine that it would also be possible to save these routes for mobile phone viewing. That would be pretty nice.