• CNET News.com, Monday, October 23, 2006 11:02 AM

Last night, Google unveiled a mashup--a layer of data placed on top of the Google Earth mapping program, with information about the crucial U.S. congressional races coming in the next two weeks. The country's 436 congressional districts will now be highlighted with stars on Google's popular 3D map of the country. Clicking on a star pops open a bubble window that has information on the candidates in that particular race.

The window includes links to news, images, polling info and Web search results on each candidate, as well as information on where and how to vote. The mid-term elections are scheduled for November 7. "Our hope is that young people using Google Earth will...make better, informed choices," says John Hanke, director of Google Earth and Google Maps.

Hanke says two Google Earth workers created the project during that 20 percent time slot allotted to employees to work on special projects of their own design. Similar projects are in the works for the U.S. National Parks Service, the Discovery Channel and National Geographic.

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