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I used the Wikipedia layer extensively during a road trip around Scotland. It was a great way to find nearby places of interest - I daresay the trip wouldn't ha

I used the Wikipedia layer extensively during a road trip around Scotland. It was a great way to find nearby places of interest - I daresay the trip wouldn't have been anywhere as interesting without it. More recently I was in France, hoping to do the same thing. To say I was disappointed to find the feature had been removed is a massive understatement. I don't really understand how Google gets away with this sort of thing, I thought it was Software 101 to never remove features. It's sort-of understandable if the feature has very few users, but it sounds like this one is used by quite a lot of people.

tammet 13y ago
check http://www.sightsmap.com http://www.sightsmap.com : this shows the wikipedia locations and more, geared to finding places of interest
wpietri 13y ago
Well, that Software 101 thing applies to software you sell to customers. The theory is that you should keep doing the thing that people pay you money for. However, with Google, we aren't the customers, we're the product. So here the equivalent question is, "Does the Wikipedia layer help the advertisers make sales?"
- jgreen10 13y ago
  Does Google losing users help advertisers make sales?
  - wpietri 13y ago
    It could well. For example, getting rid of the Wikipedia layer might make people more likely to click on displayed ads. So the people who leave Google because of the change might have clicked many fewer ads than will now be clicked by those people now more focused on the important thing. That is, giving Google money.
swalling 13y ago
If anyone is looking for a replacement tool to see nearby Wikipedia pages, we recently built this in as a permanent feature, accessible at: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Nearby https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Nearby This is in the site navigation on mobile web and it's accessible on desktop. The official Wikipedia apps also have a nearby feature as well, but I wouldn't recommend you use them to be honest. Our mobile web view is much faster, and allows you edit, upload photos, watch pages, etc.

tammet 13y ago

check http://www.sightsmap.com http://www.sightsmap.com : this shows the wikipedia locations and more, geared to finding places of interest

wpietri 13y ago

Well, that Software 101 thing applies to software you sell to customers. The theory is that you should keep doing the thing that people pay you money for. However, with Google, we aren't the customers, we're the product. So here the equivalent question is, "Does the Wikipedia layer help the advertisers make sales?"

jgreen10 13y ago
Does Google losing users help advertisers make sales?
- wpietri 13y ago
  It could well. For example, getting rid of the Wikipedia layer might make people more likely to click on displayed ads. So the people who leave Google because of the change might have clicked many fewer ads than will now be clicked by those people now more focused on the important thing. That is, giving Google money.

swalling 13y ago

If anyone is looking for a replacement tool to see nearby Wikipedia pages, we recently built this in as a permanent feature, accessible at: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Nearby https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Nearby This is in the site navigation on mobile web and it's accessible on desktop. The official Wikipedia apps also have a nearby feature as well, but I wouldn't recommend you use them to be honest. Our mobile web view is much faster, and allows you edit, upload photos, watch pages, etc.