That Place We Went

A few months ago, I was talking to my friend Brad about a Google Earth-based wiki that would be organized around buildings. I thought it would be perfect for the real estate business, and maybe even disintermediate commercial brokers from property. A few discussions with my commercial broker friend Bob dissuaded me of that notion, and after Brad started working on his new horror film, Brad and I stopped thinking about the wiki idea.

Of course, that didn't mean other people weren't thinking about the same thing. Last week I saw a presentation on Global Motion, which is pretty close to the wiki I had in mind. It doesn't have a notion of street addresses, but it is a Google Earth-enabled, geocentric wiki. It's just launched, so it doesn't have nearly as much content as Wikipedia ... yet. Wikipedia has lots of location specific entries, so maybe all the location-specific information will end up on Wikipedia. But I believe the simple introduction of a Google Earth navigation system will encourage more location-specific information on Global Motion than on Wikipedia.

I just found the TransAmerica Pyramid on Global Motion, and got a link to display the local map.

Transamerica Pyramid at GlobalMotion

Map created using GlobalMotion, the free location wiki

Inserting the map into this post was a simple cut-and-paste operation. So, if you want to document your blog posts with maps and links to information on buildings, monuments, and other locations, it's simple to do.

My hunch is that Global Motion will be used primarily by travelers who want to document their journeys, or virtual travelers checking out locations they want to visit. Another application might be the history of a building or location, including all the former tenants or future visitors (future history?). It would be simple to create a tour of an architect's work, or of a famous person's homes.

One mash-up feature I like lets you search for geotagged pictured on flickr and other photo services when you write about a location. So, without a camera, you can populate an entry with photographs of a location.

I love it when someone makes the service I was thinking about making!