Going to Chicago and wondering where to park your car while you’re in your meeting? Stick to a parking garage rather than looking for a spot on the street, where your car is much more likely to be stolen. Web developer Adrian Holovaty took data about crime put online by the city of Chicago and married it with maps from Google to pinpoint the precise spots where cars have been stolen in recent months. His crime map is now available online to any interested surfer.

Other crime-related data can be found on maps as well, from the precise locations of bomb threats in Chicago to the places that have been held up by robbers without a weapon, or where personal property has been damaged by fire or explosion, along with the date of each crime. The wealth of information combined with Google’s mapping functionality is an example of how online data will likely be mapped in the future, making it A Site to See.

@   Find this month’s A Site to See [2] at SM Online.