I read the news today, oh boy…

Today, I read news coverage about Martin Luther King Day observances…from Pago Pago. MLK Day was the top story on the Samoa News website.

How did I wind up there? I traveled to the South Pacific via a simple, but effective mashup called Newspaper Map. The web interface is pictured above; a mobile-friendly version seamlessly appears if you hit the site URL using a small-scale browser.

On one level, Newspaper Map is nothing new. User-generated mashups with generic Google Maps icons have been around for nearly eight years. But the added functionality on this site makes it more than a novelty.

To start with, newspapers are color-coded by native language. Should you want to explore beyond the yellow (English) markers, instant translation links (via Google Translate) are available. As anyone familiar with that tool is aware, the translations are rough and sometimes unintentionally hilarious, but the meaning usually comes through.

There’s even a gateway to newspapers of the past – like a time machine – although it doesn’t use the graphical interface or popover navigation. Still, it’s a charming wrinkle and a tempting time waster.

The Swedish company behind Newspaper Map says its mission is to make things for the web – “cool, useful, fast, modern, interactive, intuitive, cross-device and cross-browser compatible, etc.” This simple demonstration succeeds on all counts. And it makes me wonder about what’s coming with the “etc.”

This work by Loren Omoto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International