I can label my house from here.

July 19, 2006 5:18 PM

If you want to see all the interesting stuff hidden in Google Maps then you need look no further than a site like Google Sightseeing, but what about the other way around? If you've ever wished Google Maps was better labeled then Wikimapia might be what you're looking for.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia (29 comments total)

That's the best thing I've ever seen.
posted by hob at 5:23 PM on July 19, 2006

Super good!
posted by Wet Spot at 5:26 PM on July 19, 2006

Nifty. I am not sure this adds a lot to Google Maps that the community landmarks don't add, but it certainly is a lot cleaner, at least until the usual vandals, viewpoint-pushers, and other wiki-plagues arrive.
posted by blahblahblah at 5:33 PM on July 19, 2006

"Until"? I took a quick look at Wikimapia for Tucson, and among the first things labeled I found were "lame house", "a jew school", and "party house". I expect it can only get worse.
posted by Creosote at 5:43 PM on July 19, 2006

brilliant.
posted by Frasermoo at 5:50 PM on July 19, 2006

Yeah, well, Tucson.
posted by hob at 5:58 PM on July 19, 2006

I've wished for this many times when browsing around with google maps. I'm extremely glad that someone actually decided to do this, and I hope it gets wide press.

This is after spending 30 minutes marking things in my area. Very cool.
posted by WetherMan at 5:59 PM on July 19, 2006

Well, they might indeed have been a jew school, a lame house, and a party house - information you never would have found on some sort of edited map. Obviously, wikis are better.

And think of the mapping application:

Start: Depart Some Stupid House that My Dumb Friend Lives in
1: Turn LEFT (South) onto The Street with the Mexicans LOL 2.4 miles
2: Keep RIGHT to stay on The Road with my Girlfriend, Who You Can't Meet Because She is Sick 0.7 miles

End: Lamest School Ever (Steve Rox)!
posted by blahblahblah at 6:01 PM on July 19, 2006 [3 favorites]

Thanks! Found a lot of places I visited in Guangzhou, China, in 2002 when I adopted my daughter!
posted by david1016 at 6:05 PM on July 19, 2006

The wiki part of this could use a few more features, like a discussion tab and a page history. The supermarket near my house is called "Castro's Gay Safeway" when it's not really in the Castro, nor unusually gay for San Francisco. It would also be neat if you could turn on Google's street maps for urban areas. Overall it's very nifty, though.
posted by whir at 6:11 PM on July 19, 2006

It was coming up for me, but now it's not? Anyone seeing it?
posted by daninnj at 6:28 PM on July 19, 2006

I would love a wikified maping system, but it would need real moderation.
posted by delmoi at 6:32 PM on July 19, 2006

delmoi: I see this as a natural outcome, Mediawiki wasn't built in a day, you know?
posted by WetherMan at 6:36 PM on July 19, 2006

First thing I found was middle earth. Nice map. Wonder if Lake Wobegone is in there too...
posted by Eekacat at 7:20 PM on July 19, 2006

whir

I know it's not technically in the Castro, but it's totally the gay safeway
posted by mabelstreet at 7:34 PM on July 19, 2006

Wow, that was actually really helpful. I've been wondering what the immense white and gold building I can see from the highway is, and it's a Mormon temple(I should have guessed.)
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 7:44 PM on July 19, 2006

Bulgaroktonos - the one you can see from the Beltway?
posted by sien at 8:43 PM on July 19, 2006

They really really have to allow you to rotate those rectangles.

whir, you can get the hybrid and map view by clicking the view menu in the upper right.
posted by Chuckles at 9:13 PM on July 19, 2006

I looked around LA on Wikimapia, and it was both accurate and had no graffiti.

I think if the userbase gets big enough that there are resident "caretakers" (or busybodies, depending on your point of view) watching for defacement, this could be a quite useful tool.
posted by chimaera at 9:24 PM on July 19, 2006

This is quite good but I always envisioned something like it with a place for location-centric articles/commentaries/craisglist as well. Hitchhiker's Guide to Earth, anyone?
posted by IronLizard at 9:44 PM on July 19, 2006

And think of the mapping application:

Start: Depart Some Stupid House that My Dumb Friend Lives in
1: Turn LEFT (South) onto The Street with the Mexicans LOL 2.4 miles

This could lead to a revolution in rural direction-giving.

Now, when someone tells you "Go about three miles and turn left where the Piggly Wiggly used to be," or "Hang a right where the Jenkins boy got kilt," you can know where they are!
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 10:23 PM on July 19, 2006

Added some stuff to Madison. Someone's taken great pains to make this a useful map for downtown Madison and the University buildings.
posted by thanotopsis at 7:05 AM on July 20, 2006

I checked these links out and they are cool, but does nyone know of any places that catalog the "odd" or arcade things people find in goolge earth?

I'm speaking about things like the mojave telephone booth. Bizarre, idiosyncratic things like that.

Here's another one: Norristown, PA dead end highway

Is there a site like this? Or do I have to wander the virtual desert alone in search of the transmundane?
posted by Pastabagel at 7:09 AM on July 20, 2006

Great post! As frightening as it is to consider the power of satellite imagery, I'm also awed by the beauty of it. Have never seen Windows Live Local (or Pictometry International Corp. I should say): the image quality is simply stunning.
posted by inoculatedcities at 7:09 AM on July 20, 2006

That's neat! I added some local stuff (leaving out the obvious terror targets like water and chemical plants).
posted by Standeck at 7:17 AM on July 20, 2006

You are a patriot, Standeck.
posted by Keith Talent at 9:46 AM on July 20, 2006

Am I the only one who finds it addictive to label stuff in my neighborhood that no one else has yet bothered with?

This is fun, but is it useful?
posted by Western Infidels at 1:20 PM on July 20, 2006

What I don't really get is all the people who are adding things that are already there.
posted by dmd at 1:51 PM on July 20, 2006

This is totally fun, and yes, not at all useful. Well, maybe if I was going to be in a neighborhood anyways I could use this to look for, uh, something interesting in that area.

PS: just because that Safeway is a little effeminate does not mean that it's gay. But maybe I've just lived in the neighborhood long enough that its level of gayness doesn't even register with me anymore.
posted by whir at 12:27 AM on July 21, 2006