Move over Google Earth….

First, there was Mapquest….Then Keyhole….which became Google Earth. But like everything these days, the power continues to shift to the individual user. Now comes Wikimapia, which was created by Alexandre Koriakine and Evgeniy Saveliev, inspired by Google maps and Wikipedia. WARNING – THIS SITE IS ADDICTING!! This will be a good, FREE way for churches to get their message out…….Check out the Park Community Church links on Wikimapia at 1001 N Crosby and 108 W Germania Place!

When the satellite overlay came out as part of Google’s map project the tech crowd immediately took to creating memory maps by putting notes on grabbed images of everything from their favorite bar to their condo building. WikiMapia is a Google Maps mashup that lets users add call-out sections to any area on Google Maps. The site is intended to be a Wikipedia-like reference for the planet. The WikiMapia call-outs are similar to Flickr’s notes, and while the site is young (only a few months), there are already a lot of interesting areas covered.

As you could imagine, Chicago is already tagged with locales like Gold Coast and Wrigleyville and more specific locations like Wrigley Field and Navy Pier. Editing the wiki interface is simple, painless, and surprisingly 100% anonymous (well, maybe they log your IP – but there’s no login). The overall scope of the map is impressive, but once the tiny things start getting descriptors on the map it may just become a little overwhelming.