Every summer in Seattle, crowds of tourists pile into buses and amphibious vehicles to see the city’s signature attractions — the Space Needle, Elliott Bay, Pike Place Market, etc. Of course, that stuff is interesting, but come on, Seattle is a technology town. How about something for us geeks?

Well, here it is. And we promise it won’t require any quacking.

We're happy to introduce the Geek's Guide to Seattle, a virtual tour of many of the region's most interesting tech locations -- ranging from the former rental house where Jeff Bezos started Amazon to an extremely cool, little-known communications technology museum south of the city. We've compiled 21 locations, including some well-known sites but also many hidden gems discovered in the process of our reporting.

As part of the project, we've worked with Seattle-based Foundry Interactive to launch a related website, seattletechtour.com, where we'll develop this concept over time.

Click this thumbnail image for a PDF map of the virtual tour.

And here are links to all of the entries so far on the seattletechtour.com site, along with a custom Google Map we created for the project.

Museum of Communications
Birthplace of Amazon.com
Microsoft's Memory Lane
Nintendo of America HQ
Former HomeGrocer HQ
Bellevue Burgermaster
Carillon Point
RE-PC Computer Museum
Bill Gates' House
Microsoft Visitor Center
Madison Park Starbucks
Museum of History & Industry
Wilcox Hall, UW
Allen Center, UW
Birthplace of LiveJournal
Fremont's 34th St
Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame
Amgen Helix Bridge
Seattle Laser Dome
Westin Building
Amazon.com HQ

We focused on places with interesting, fun or meaningful things to see or experience. But there's no doubt plenty that we missed. It's important to note that this is just a first version. We're planning to add more locations over time, and we'd encourage anyone to suggest more or simply add new locations to the custom Google Map we’ve created. Use a Google account and click “Edit” from the main map page to add a location. We’re looking forward to seeing what everyone adds.

Bonus for Gnomedex attendees: We'll be distributing a limited-edition poster of the Geek's Guide to Seattle at the TechFlash booth during the conference today. Stop by and sign up for our daily email newsletter to get a copy of the poster, while supplies last.

Thanks to Roy Leban for his work on the Geek’s Guide compass logo; to Ed Lazowska for his expertise and guidance; and to many TechFlash readers for their suggestions and tips about locations to include. Thanks also to our partners on this project, Kroll Map Co. and Foundry Interactive. Please share your thoughts via email, in the comments, or via Twitter, using the links below.

– Todd Bishop, Eric Engleman and John Cook