No, that’s not a typo. You may have already heard of Schmap, a new tool that allows you to download and peruse detailed maps and travel guides to cities around the world. I had heard of it, but hadn’t gotten around to downloading the Schmap Player (which you must have to view the guides) until today. I am generally hesitant to download random crap onto my computer, hence the delay in checking this one out. But I was curious. So I took the risk. I know, I’m really getting crazy aren’t I?

So here are my thoughts on Schmap:

- Easy to download and install.

- Visually appealing. Using it is almost like playing pared down video game.

- Navigating maps is really easy, as is finding specific types of places in a city. I could even search for shoe stores across Los Angeles. Now that’s special.

- The bookmark feature was useful. Say you spend a few hours exploring one city guide and bookmark sites of interest along the way. Later you can create maps between locations, print locations, descriptions and contact information without having to find them again.

- There are so many features that I think it would take the average person an hour or so of playing with the program to really get an idea of what it can do. Some of the features are obvious, but it took me a few minutes to figure out how to bookmark.

- I was confused by several features. I may be making myself sound like an idiot, but I just didn’t get the email function. I mean, I am assuming you can email maps to friends, etc., but when I clicked email, the a list of all the places I had clicked on was listed next to “email:” - so I was like, am I emailing the Chateau Marmont? Am I emailed a map of the Chateau Marmont to someone else? What am I emailing? Why God Why?

- The travel information itself is good, but I wondered where they got their top picks from for restaurants, hotels, etc. As a travel writer, I am always quite interested in where these kinds of recommendations are coming from. It looks like most of the content comes from Wcities. And that wouldn’t be my first source for good travel info. Basic travel info maybe, but I wouldn’t necessarily go to Wcities for restaurant or hotel info.

Overall, I think Schmap is a really fun tool. I’ll definitely spend some time playing around with it in the future. I’m quite interested in seeing Schmap 2.0, which debuts this fall.

Schmap official site