Overland Park, Kansas based Internet telephone provider Nuvio Corp. is doing the suing. It doesn't like Garmin using "Nuvi" in any of its device names. Nuvio wants payment for past infringement. No comment from Garmin.

- IntoMobile
AP story

A statewide bike advocacy e-mail list circulated a request to sign a petition that encourages Google to add a "Bike There" option along side it's "Drive there" and "Take public transportation" buttons for getting from A to B. You can find a link to it at Google Maps Bike There.

I'm a bike commuter and recreational rider, so I'm all for more information on the safest, "best" routes. My questions are:

Has Google ever added content to Google Maps because of a petition? I'm not saying this won't work, just curious about a precident.

How labor intensive will it be to collect bike route data in comparison to say public transit data? I know there's bike data out there and more and more communities are hiring bike coordinators (my city and many neighboring ones do) but pulling together nationwide or even big-city wide data is a challenge beyond public transit.

What's the return for Google? As much as we love to think Google Maps is all about us, it's at least in part about advertising.

Could/should this be a mapplet? I know this means it's not right in the interface, but it'd be available and perhaps quicker to implement than waiting for Google to take up the challenge.