Locations are plotted on maps grouped by themes such as movies, TV and music as well as by regions and cities including New England, the Pacific Northwest and New York. Clicking on a yellow map marker opens a window with the address and photos of each spot along with a brief writeup and a link to one of three other AOL properties spanning Moviefone, AOL Music and AOL Television.

So, the Timberline Lodge in Oregon -- better known as "The Shining" hotel, for instance -- carries a link to the horror flick's Moviefone listing, where people can find reviews and further links for buying the DVD. (Strangely, no links for hotel reservations, though.)

Eventually, AOL will let users propose their own attractions and credit those added with a "submitted by" tag line. People can also subscribe to a WhereItsAt's RSS feed and follow it on Twitter.

On board as launch sponsor is Visa, with a leaderboard unit running across the site promoting its "More people go with Visa" campaign, as well as branding within each pop-up window. The card giant's ad deal runs from May to September.

WhereItsAt is one of 30 targeted sites that AOL plans to launch this year as part of AOL's broader strategy to build traffic and user engagement through a range of tailored properties that also includes BlackVoices, Asylum and Politics Daily.

Traffic gains to sites in AOL's MediaGlow publishing division, however, have not translated yet into increased ad revenue. Parent Time Warner reported that AOL's ad sales dropped 20% in the first quarter.

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