What's in it for me?

A loyal reader asks: I have a young staff. I would love to find something to reward and motivate them. But all the incentive programs I know about are, shall I say, stodgy?

The times they are a changing, loyal reader.

Check out Snowfly.

When employees meet crucial business goals, their reward is two-fold: the opportunity to play a game and the chance to win big. Every play is a guaranteed winner. When given the option to play the game or settle for a predetermined number of points, employees choose to play each time. They can then redeem earned points for prizes they actually want, such as an item from the Internet, a gift card, a day off from work or any other prize the company wants to offer. With Snowfly, you give your employees the right rewards, in the right way, for the right reasons, so your company will receive the right results.

Intriguing.

Map it, Danno.

A loyal reader asks: I keep hearing that there are neat mapping tools online. I want to see some! I want to customize, collaborate, plan! Whatcha got for me?

Oh reader, we love maps. Read on.

One of our favorite resources, Mashable, recently published this amazing list. We couldn't have said it better ourselves.

CUSTOMIZABLE AND COLLABORATIVE MAPS

Click2Map.com - Create custom Google Maps, manage your markers, publish and share your creations.

ClustrMaps.com - Get a visual representation of all the visitors to your website.

Geotag it - Add geo tags to Flickr and Del.icio.us posts and see where other links and photos come from.

MapBuilder.net - Uses Google Maps to help you build a custom tagged map you can add to your own website.

Mapicurious.com - Mark vacation spots, restaurants, bars, just about any place you would recommend.

Mappr.com - Another site allowing you to geo tag your Flickr photos to allow people to see them on a map.

Maptales.com - Tales of trips and more sorted on to a Google Map.

Maptrot.com - Create maps of interesting locales such as Route 66 or major sports stadiums, share them with the world.

Mkmap.com - Collaborative map that allows users to add things such as transit services and restaurants.

OpenStreetMap.org - A user editable map of the world to be worked on in collaboration.

Pixagogo.com - Add your own photos to a Google Map, give people a real feel for your neighborhood or vacation.

Planiglobe.com - Customize a map and download PostScript and Illustrator versions.

Quikmaps.com - Doodle on a Google Map, pass it around, embed in your site, or download it to your GPS.

Tagmaps - A way to visualize text on geographic maps, then can be used on your site.

Traffic.com - Check out traffic for your area on a map.

Trippermap.com - Tag your Flickr photos with a location; they get added to a flash based map for your website.

Useamap.com - Helps you publish a map for your event, provides a short url for easy use.

Wayfaring.com - Create and share maps, explore ones made by others.

Wayki.com - Tag locations and share with others, explore tags others have left.

YourGMap.com - Customizable and embeddable Google Maps with content you choose.

TRANSIT MAPPING

goDCgo.com - Look up Washington DC-specific information such as traffic, special events and car pooling.

IamCaltrain.com - Interactive map of the San Francisco metro area trains.

onNYturf.com - Interactive subway map of New York City.

Seattle Bus Monster - Plan your bus routes in the Seattle, WA area.

SUBJECT SPECIFIC MAPPING (not all are interactive, some are just some neat specialized maps!*)

DaylightMap.com - See where the sun is shining currently on this map.

Feedmap.net - Add a geo-code to your blog so people can look blogs up by location. You can also browse for areas that would interest you.

FlightAware.com - See how many planes are currently in the air and where they are.

Gruvr.com - Place to look up local music and add tour info.

HealthMap.org - A global disease outbreak map. For general interest or to suggest places you may wish to avoid.

Hotpotr.com - Map of Wi-Fi cafes and hotspots.

Incident1.com - Interactive map of 911 calls from around the United States.

Mailboxmap.com - Enter an address, get the locations of USPS mailboxes nearby.

Map-Runner.com - You can create a run route and assign a difficulty rating and a safety rating; it will be available to all runners using map runner, and they can rate it.

MapMyRun.com - Plot out your running course, indicate where water and bathrooms are, calculate your workout. They also have MapMyHike.com, MapMyRide.com, MapMyTri.com, and MapMyWalk.com.

MappyHour.com - Click anywhere on the map to display nearby bars and their happy hour specials.

MapWii.com - Enter your Wii number and see other players online to setup games all from a geographic map.

Moremap.com - Uses Google Maps as a basis to show earthquake activity, traffic reports, radio stations, and numerous other functions.

Platial.com - Add content from video, photos, stories, feeds and add it to your website.

PublicRoutes.com - A global map of mass-transit systems.

SignalMap.com - Find or add your own reports on cell strength to various locations and by carrier.

Tornado Paths - Visual history of tornado paths on a map.

VirtualVideoMap.com - Shows a Google Map with YouTube videos sorted by locations.

POPULAR MAPPING SERVICES

Ask.com Maps - Ask.com’s driving directions solution.

Google Mars - Google’s interactive map of the fourth planet of our solar system, Mars.

Google Maps - Get directions, look up your house with satellite photos. The basis of many websites.

Mapquest.com - Look up local businesses, get driving directions.

Poly9 FreeEarth - A free, online interactive 3D globe with various layers you can apply.

Windows Live Local - Microsoft’s entrant in to the mapping game.

Worldmapper - Maps of the world resized based on various subjects such as land mass and population.

Yahoo! Local Maps - Get driving directions, find businesses and much more.

Again, credit for that amazing list goes to Mashable. If you don't subscribe, you should!