Exploring Wikipedia with Google Maps

Mapping Wikipedia is a project from TraceMedia and the Oxford Internet Institute.

Using Google Maps Mapping Wikipedia allows you to map the geography of all geotagged Wikipedia articles in a number of different languages. It can also create maps based on the word count of articles, the date created, number of authors, and number of images.

If you are interested about how the map was created TraceMedia has provided an outline of the tools used in building the application.

A Wiki Map for Israel

Amud Anan is an online travel guide and geographical encyclopaedia for Israel.



The map uses the Google Maps API with topographical map tiles of Israel to display user submitted points of interest. As well as adding points of interest users can add routes and trails to the map.



The map is in Hebrew only and is available as a desktop and as an iPhone and iPad application.



Amud Anan



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Wikipedia Chloropeth on Google Maps

Ragtag Map of Wikipedia Articles

The Ragtag blog has created a Google Map of every Wikipedia page tagged with a latitude and longitude. 424,171 articles in Wikipedia have been geotagged. You can see the geographical distribution of the articles in the heat map above.

Ragtag were also able to find 14,238 historical events that were geotagged on Wikipedia. By plotting the events by year and location Ragtag have managed to create a dynamic visualisation that gives a rough idea of the history of the world in 100 seconds.



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Google Maps Wikipedia Browser

Wikihood

Wikihood uses Google Maps to present you with information and selected images from Wikipedia relevant to any given location.

The application lets you see at a glance which Wikipedia articles are related to any chosen location. The displayed articles and images include information on people, culture, buildings, companies and organizations and geographical information.

As well as being available for the desktop Wikihood is available for the iPad and the iPhone. The mobile applications in particular are very useful for getting local information from Wikipedia when out and about.

Also See

Wikikmapia

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Geo-Tagging Tool for Wikipedia

GeoLocator

GeoLocator is a great tool for streamlining the process of geotagging, especially for Wikipedians. It is a Google Maps based tool that allows you to drop a map marker on any location and retrieve the latitude and longitude.

For anyone writing or wanting to geo-tag a Wikipedia article the tool automatically authors the geocoding templates for Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons multimedia content.

GeoLocator also includes a link to direct you to the chosen location on Wikimapia and comes with a permalink option so that you can grab a link to the chosen location on GeoLocator.

Hat-tip: microformats.dk

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Be an Informed Traveller with Google Maps

Near to Here

Near to Here is an iPhone application that uses Google Maps to show you the interesting things around you.

The Near to Here application determines your current location and finds nearby interesting stuff. As you pass by landmarks the application alerts you with the Wikipedia entry of those landmarks.

The developers of Near to Here say that "whether you are passing by a plaza in Rome, playing near a fountain in Paris, strolling through Times Square in New York ... this application will give you all the information you need to be an informed traveler."

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All of Wikipedia on Google Maps

The Full Wiki

The Full Wiki is a great attempt to map all of Wikipedia using Google Maps.

'So what?' I hear you ask. Wikipedia already lets you view locations on maps and Google Maps also has a Wikipedia layer so that you can look up information about locations directly on the map.

However, The Full Wiki is different because it maps all the locations mentioned in a Wikipedia entry. So, for example, if you look up '1945' in The Full Wiki all the locations mentioned in the entry are mapped. So you can see at a glance all the major events of 1945 directly on a Google Map.

The map and the article are linked throughout. Click on a map marker and it jumps to that part of the article. Click on an article marker and it will show you that location on the map.

Here's another great example. Look up The Renaissance in The Full Wiki and you can read about this cultural movement in its historical context and the accompanying map gives its geographical context.

Some more examples:

• Ferdinand Magellan got around a bit. Now you can see where he explored during his travels.
• Barack Obama has the most international background of any recent US president. See it mapped.

This is definitely one Google Maps mashup that I can see myself using on a daily basis.

Also See

Wikimapia - Wikimapia is an online editable map - you can describe any place on Earth or just surf the map to discover information about the locations that interest you.

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Google Map of Nearly Everything

iHaochi

iHaochi is a Google Map that let's you explore geotagged content from a large number of websites, including BrightKite, Flickr, Panoramio, Picasa, Upcoming, Wikimedia Commons, Wikipedia, and YouTube. The map also features "Local News" and "Local Tweets", showing news from Google News and recent tweets from Twitter.

The map even has a "Local Friends" option that lets you connect with Facebook and then shows you how many Facebook friends you have in each U.S. state. The map loads all this geotagged content dynamically. Therefore if you navigate around in the map the map markers will update automatically.

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Space & Time Wiki for Google Maps

Stephansmap.org

This site is a wiki about places and times, that uses Google Maps to tell the history of just about anything. Being a wiki means that anyone can register with the site and start a new time-line map or contribute to the existing time-lines.

All entries to the site are tied to a location on the planet and a date range. Recent entries to the wiki are shown on a Google Map on the site's home page. Clicking on one of the markers will take you to that entry's page on the wiki.

The page for each entry to the wiki contains a Google Map showing all the markers related to that time-line. Under the map further details can be added and links to all the markers on the map are listed.

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Wikipedia on Google Maps

WikiFieldTrip

WikiFieldTrip is a Google Map mashup that displays Wikipedia articles based on the current map view. The relevant Wikipedia articles automatically load when you drag the map around or search for a new location.

When you click on a map marker an information window opens with the Wikipedia article. Each information window also includes a star. If you click on the star a link to the article appears in the map sidebar. In this way it is a possible to create a list of Wikipedia articles for later reading.

Other Wikipedia Mashups:

• Wikimapia
• GeoWalk
• Placeopedia
• WikipediaVision - mapping live edits to Wikipedia
• GeoNames

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Wikimapia BETA: Realtime Editable Map of the World Launched

Wikimapia BETA
Everyone's favourite Google Maps mash-up Wikimapia has undergone a big update. WikiMapia is a Google Maps based wiki system which allows anyone to add information to any location on Earth. The map now has over 8.5 million places marked - and it just got even better with Wikimapia BETA.

In Wikimapia Beta you can easily add places, roads, rail roads and ferry crossings which become visible on the map immediately. Moreover, the Wikimapia map is interactive, so you may click on any location and see detailed information, provided by other users.

Wikimapia BETA has two main views - satellite and map. The Satellite map view shows the original Google satellite imagery with places that are interactive outlined. Here is an example embedded below:


The Wikimapia map view, which is drawn from all users contributions, is also interactive

Another great feature of Wikimapia is that you may assign categories to added places. By clicking on a specified category in the menu, for example "reactor", you can see all the different reactors around the world.

Wikimapia is available in many languages and is waiting for you "To describe the whole world!"

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Wikis in Google Maps

Wikitude is a new Google Maps mash-up that allows you to search for points of interest listed in Wikipedia. The site takes advantage of geographical information contained in Wikipedia articles, which means it has over 350.000 points of interest in over 10,000 categories to draw upon.



If you search Wikitude by location you are presented with a Google Map that shows the points of interest around that location. If you click on one of the tagged points of interest a window opens on the map containing the Wikipedia article.

You can also search Wikitude by category. For example, if you search by caves, you can open a Google Map with all the caves geotagged in Wikipedia. As well as opening a Google Map each search also returns Google Earth kmz files and Point of Interest files for TomTom.

The site even includes a WAP interface. This means you can use your cell phone to find points of interest near by. The points of interest are then returned with directions on to how to find them.

Other Wiki Google Maps

• Wikimapia - Wiki tagging the world on a Google Map.
• Placeopedia - Connecting Wikipedia articles with the places they represent.
• WikipediaVision - View edits to Wikipedia live on a Google Map.

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