Google Maps is a powerful tool for displaying data and context about your community -- and creating custom Google Maps just got easier.

Recently Google debuted a new mapping tool, Google Maps Engine Lite. This toolset (still in beta) lets you import small spreadsheets of locations onto a comprehensive map, visualize those places through a variety of styling and drawing options, and organize and compare up to three different data sets.

If you've already created custom Google Maps using the My Maps tool, you can import them into Google Maps Engine Lite and layering them with even more information. My Maps tool will continue to be available for people who want to create simple custom maps, but eventually it will be incorporated into Google Maps Engine Lite.