Mapping at a hyper-local level is developing at a breakneck pace. The line between full-blown GIS and cloud mapping also fades at a similar speed. Last week Google made announcements of new features that may grant users even greater detail of local places than before and will provide the type of robust information that users look for in a conventional GIS. These announcements came from the Google Public Sector Blog and the Google LatLong Blog. (Check out the full post for more details)

Google Maps has produced a lot of tools making it easy to collaboratively create and edit maps, but those maps are still limited to Google's base layer information. At most you are able to create basic polygon and line information on top of Google's existing maps. While this is incredibly useful in areas that have been mapped more extensively, it doesn't really provide an opportunity to start from scratch in order to create visions for the future. The scale on Google maps can also be limiting in that you can only zoom in so far. If you want to create really robust maps on a neighborhood scale, you are probably pushing the limits of what Google can do in many areas (although data is increasingly complex in more populated areas). Tools available from UMapper allow you to take control of your map by importing your own image to use as a base map and overlaying data similar to what is available through the Google MyMaps application. (More after the jump)