It's a real time map showing who is currently viewing that page (you need HTML5 geolocation api). However it never took off because for it to be fun you need to get a bunch of people on it at the same time.
May I suggest the view starts out with the entire globe? It zoomed in for me, and had to intuitively know to press the + key to zoom out where I saw a couple of others. If you had clearer zoom controls and a more visible icon for each user it would be more interesting. Posting something like this to google+ right now could generate a huge number of people checking it out.
Thanks for your suggestion! There is a snag in Google maps which causes grey areas to start appearing outside the boundaries of the world map (on top and bottom). Which kinda sucks because it makes the map look ugly. That's why I had to set it in this zoom size. But what you said completely makes sense. I am going to go ahead and change it to a lower zoom.
The world map in realtime is interesting. The iphone app Beluga does this (they got bought by FB) sorta, but in reverse. They focus on the chat, and have the ability to see a map of where everyone is located.
Would up vote this 5 times over some bit coin lulsecz space station news... Keep em coming!