I’m not quite sure what the “sch” represents in Schmap. Maybe a combination of “schweet” and “map”, or better yet, a little onomatopoeia (yes I had to look that one up), like the sound a map makes when you whack someone upside the head with it. Either way, they are quite the handy interactive maps.
I first heard about it when someone contacted me about using one of my photos from Flickr of the Ira Keller Fountain in Portland. The published version of the Portland map is above, and gives a nice overview of some of the scenic landmarks downtown, as well as some of the surrounding area. Users can create their own Schmaps using the free desktop tool. Schmaps can then be shared with others and displayed like widgets like the one above. The only real drag is that there are a very limited set of cities available for Schmapping, and sadly Anchorage is the only city available in Alaska. Hopefully, their list of cities grows.