Forgotten the dramatic details of the 2000 American presidential election? Download a map of the results, thanks to the US Geological Survey (USGS).

The National Atlas website also offers a taster of the potential of online map making. Visitors can have fun creating customized comparison maps of the election results. They can see how electoral or popular votes are related to costly west-coast landslides or east-coast tropical cyclones, for instance, or indeed to butterfly distribution.

With over 400 data layers, the National Atlas of the United States offers instant access to information from over 20 different federal agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency and the Bureau of Land Management. "It's a good example of how different agencies can share data across the web," says Barbara Ryan, chief geographer for USGS.