Maps on your web page

When I was a kid, I wanted to be a cartographer.

So, it's not surprising that one of my favorite things to come out of the "Web 2.0" evolution (I refuse to call it a "revolution") are the various mash-ups between Google Maps or Yahoo! Maps and user-provided content. Let the masses geocode, and watch the magic begin.

Two of my favorite such sites are Placeopedia and Wikimapia. Unfortunately, Placeopedia doesn't seem to have active customer support any more, and they don't do a good job of updating their "auto-fill" registry with the most recent entries from Wikipedia. But, Wikimapia seems to be going strong, and users are making hay, filling in interesting spots all over the globe.

You can even use Wikimapia to create a map that you can plug into your own web page!

This is an example:



Note that the orbiting satellite took a picture of ICR when we still didn't have grass growing around the building -- meaning the photo is at least 4 years old.

Tags: geocoding, geotagging, maps, Placeopedia, Web 2.0, Wikimapia