Interactive Mapping on NYMag.com

Last week, I was disappointed with New York Magazine's lack of multimedia usage in their holiday gift and event guides, but this week they have redeemed themselves.

Grub Street is NY Mag's food blog and they took full advantage of Google Maps to create the New and Notable Grub Map.

The map plots recently opened (green) and recently reviewed (orange) restaurants as well as restaurants that are coming soon (yellow). The map is regularly updated to include new openings and reviews. Each of the points features the name and address of the restaurant and a link to an article. I would have liked to see a photo of the restaurant for each point, but at least the link is helpful. 

The Magazine also takes advantage of its readers' social media use and provides links to share the map via Facebook, Twitter, email, etc. 

NYMag also tags its posts, giving it some SEO brownie points. This map is tagged under "grub map" and "openings." 

If readers click "openings," they can see  all of New York Magazine's posts that are tagged as "openings" even if they are not on the Grub Street Blog. 

I have been reading New York Magazine for years thanks to my parents (they're subscribers), but I was pleased to discover today that NY Mag expanded the Grub Street Blog to include other cities. Now I can get my food fix for Boston from my favorite New York publication!

Obviously, New York Magazine would not be able to do this with every blog or specific website, but the Grub Street Blog was the perfect section to expand across the country. So far, the blog has expanded to Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, and Philadelphia. 

Even though NY Mag is based out of New York City, there are no shortage of posts in every cities' blog. Most of the blogs are updated multiple times daily. 

The Grub Street Blogs are great (and interactive!) ways to keep up on food news and reviews in New York, and other major cities.