Google Maps adds user photos and Wikipedia

Looks like Google Maps has now added a couple of cool, traveler-friendly features.  A new "More" button allows you to overlay your map with both user-uploaded photos (see above) and regional Wikipedia entries  (below).  You can also upload and tag your own images to G-Maps via a service called Panoramio, a Spanish company that Google bought last year whose large database of photos has already been made available on Google Earth.

For the traveler interested in ditching  heavy travel guides and going digital, the Wikipedia entries dotting landmarks both major and minor would seem to be a good way to investigate the neighborhood before you leave the hostel.

Cities like Paris are already papered over with both photos and in Wikipedia articles, to the point where it's hard to see the streets underneath if you have these options turned on.  You might think that if this feature catches on, and people all over the world begin upload their images to Google Maps, that the world as we know it might drown in a giant pile of photographs.  Though I guess that's already sort of happening.  Ah, who needs geography anyway?

Note: I have been advised that I'm several weeks late on this news.  But hey, if you haven't seen it, it's new to you.