gMaps – Cool WPMU Theme

Browsing across the web last night, I came across a very cool iteration of WordPress MU. The site was http://klews.net/maps/ and functioned as if the entire install was one giant map. As I’ve since learned, that is essentially what it is.

So exactly who is WP Premium?

We are a growing group of independent designers and developers who are totally addicted to WordPress MU (Multi-User) and spend all our time creating new themes and plug-ins specifically tailored to the needs of other developers, web-masters or anyone that likes good themes. At present, we are still setting things up and to be honest, if you are reading this, it would be somewhat surprising, for at present, we have not told anyone about us, because we first want to finish beta testing the two themes we are presently developing.

Well, it seems to me that the cat is out of the bag. The site I linked to above showing off an interesting use of maps is actually a WordPress MU theme called gMaps. This theme contains a slew of features such as:

Automatically Re-Sized Full-Screen Google Maps
Individually Assigned Map Types (Map, Satellite and Hybrid)
Ability to Assign Different Types for Each Post & Page
Individually Assigned Zoom Levels for Each Post & Page
Geo-Tagged Content with Integrated geoRSS Functionality

This theme is not free but their is an interesting catch behind how you can purchase this theme. According to WP Premium, an unlimited developers license is $99.00 with 25% of that cost going back to Klews.net. So while Klews hired WP Premium to develop this theme, Klews has talked them into a discounted price while receiving kick backs. I wonder if this is something that will eventually find its way into premium WordPress themes. Someone develops a custom theme and then resells that theme while giving kickbacks to the person who ordered the custom development.

At any rate, gMaps looks like a cool step forward in innovation in terms of using WordPress MU for more than simply providing multiple blogs. What do you guys and gals think?