New Hexagonal Binning On Google Maps

I've of late spotted a publish of maps inward the wild using hexagonal binning to visualise data. The Sacramento Bee map of Six Years of Sacramento County Homicides is the showtime fourth dimension I've seen it beingness used amongst the Google Maps API.

The map shows homicides too assaults amongst a firearm, or shootings, reported to Sacramento police pull too sheriff's deputies from 2007 to 2012. Homicides on the map are represented equally dots. The hexagons are used to display the publish of shootings inward defined regions on the map.