3pointD.com

GeoCommons is a cool-looking service designed to let you “explore, create and share geographic data and intelligent maps.” That is, it’s a map-mashup-maker. But this one comes with the built-in ability to publish your maps through a variety of channels, and provides access to “geographic information beyond anything Google Earth is producing right now,” according to an email I just got from a PR dude working on behalf of FortiusOne, the company behind GeoCommons. The service goes into public beta on 28 May, to be introduced at the Where 2.0 conference. The Web site description is promising, with talk of a large number of data sets to choose from, plus the ability to add your own, support for various kinds of tagging and metadata, and map sharing, syndication and social networking tools.

As ever, the proof is in the pudding, which we won’t get to taste for another couple of days. But check out the FortiusOne blog for an idea of some of the cool things the GeoCommons people are thinking about. Take PollMappr, for instance. Although it’s suffering the dropped-e hangover of the fading Web 2.0 era (we kid), it sounds like a cool service: a polling widget that automatically maps the votes into Google Earth. There are some other cool metaversal ideas kicking around on that blog as well. Which means GeoCommons should be a service to watch.