Mapeed provides a nice service to complement Google Maps. If you have ever created a Google Map that contains many placemarks in a small area, you should take a look at Mapeed. Mapeed provides a simple plugin (you will have to copy and paste a snippet of code) that you can use to sort through the clutter. Mapeed combines all of the placemarks into one. When you click on the Mapeed placemark it reveals the original placemarks in a clutter-free detail. Click here to see a demonstration of Mapeed in action.

Applications for Education
The Mapeed service allows you to have up to 5,000 placemarks and 50,000 monthly page views for free. Those numbers should be more than sufficient for academic use.
If you’re students create a collaborative map with many placemarks Mapeed could be a useful service for them to use to make a great looking interactive map.