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It seems as if Google dropped the Wikipedia layer from Google Maps a few weeks ago.
A Google Maps Help thread has dozens of complaints from Google Maps users that the Wikipedia layer is gone.
The layer provided additional content from Wikipedia about location specific data on the map. Now, it is no longer available.
In fact, if you look at the help document about the available layers, you will not see Wikipedia listed there. The current options include:
- Traffic
- Photos
- Labels
- Webcams
- Bicycling
- 45ยบ
- Terrain
- Transit
Google has not yet responded to the complaints in the thread. But it does seem the Wikipedia layer is officially gone from Google Maps.
Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.
Comments:
weldongeezer
09/10/2013 03:19 pm
Dropping the Wikipedia option/links layer is a great disservice .... a deletion/omission that makes Google Maps less functional and hence less appealing to the user.
Gregory Kohs
09/10/2013 05:26 pm
In 2010, the Wikipedia article about my business, MyWikiBiz, was geographically tethered to the Google Maps layer for Wikipedia. Google Places traffic to my map listing increased about five-fold. Chart: http://mywikibiz.com/File:MyWikiBiz_added_to_Google_Maps%27_Wikipedia_layer.jpg
Takeshi Young
09/10/2013 06:37 pm
Am I the only one that's never heard of this feature before?
Morgan Akchehirlian
09/10/2013 08:02 pm
Thanks Gregory for taking us back to where it all started.The point is Google is always great at notifying user experience.The areas they see where users are not using it they start skipping it. Continuously testing new things and getting rid of old ones. In this tech era an online organization have to keep changing.They need to build the culture of change. Many Google places/business do not have wikipedia pages so its better to have local searches with out this option.
Gregory Kohs
09/10/2013 09:12 pm
No, you're hardly the first, Takeshi -- it was a rather obscure element of Google Maps that I'm confident less than 5% of users even had any earthly idea existed.
Ronaldroripon Roripon
09/14/2013 08:32 am
roripon.com vs google.com
Graciousstore
09/16/2013 04:44 am
Not sure you're alone! I've not heard of it also
Jonathan Fox
09/21/2013 11:25 pm
This is a real shame. I often used the feature to look up historical or geographical information on a location such as a shipwreck, an historical river, castle, burial mound etc. Now I am blind to the semantics of the map. It is like stripping out the major highways or place names. To those that failed to notice the feature I say to them perhaps you also did not notice "Traffic, photos, Weather, Terrain, Webcams, Bicycling and Labels" as that was where Wikipedia was nestled amongst? Perhaps there is an opportunity here for http://www.openstreetmap.org to step up and introduce the wikipedia layer.
jj22
10/06/2013 01:28 am
Weirdly, it's back, for me. Maybe They heard my complaint...
bsporrer
10/06/2013 10:13 am
Really? What browser are you using and what did you do to make it work?