One of the problems with online newspapers is that great initiatives are left to rot once launched. A perfect example of this: the Toronto Star released a clever Google Map of murders in the Toronto area “2005 to date”; but it’s not up-to-date.

There’s been a number of high-profile shootings in the city, and the Star’s tool has been an effective means to show these murders. The problem, though, is that it doesn’t seem to have been updated since since November 1 and on Boxing Day, a 15-year-old girl was shot dead outside a shoe store near the city’s marquee intersection of Yonge and Dundas.

The print edition is all over this story, but this ideal online offering is embarrassingly stale. Let’s hope it gets updated soon. (And it was, less than two days after posting this, Jane Creba’s murder was indicated on the map. The senior editor of thestar.com also explained in the comments that the map has been continually updated — although design improvements would make these updates more apparent to readers.)