Trendspotting: Tracking celebrities

Lots of folks squawked about Galker Stalker, the celebrity sightings on a Google Map feature from Nick Denton’s Gawker blog. Next comes something considerably more benign from Microsoft: Celebfavorites.com, which identifies celebrities’ favorite hangouts and adds them to Microsoft’s new mapping website, Windows Live Local. No real-time celeb spotting, just a list of places where they like to hang out.

As the Washington Post reports, the celebs are in on the game; they agree to list their favorite haunts in exchange for a donation by Microsoft to their favorite charities. It’s not quite as edgy as Gawker Stalker, to be sure. But it does seem to indicate a trend.

My company, in a more modest way, is tapping the trend. With our YourMTB.com site, we’ve created a map showing where enthusiast-in-chief Walker Thompson is riding: Where in the world is Walker MTBing? It uses the service Platial.com for the mapping.

I don’t think anyone will be stalking Walker on his rides with this, but perhaps a few mountain bikers will know to watch for him and say hi when he’s on their favorite trail.