There's been some outcry lately about the removal of the Wikipedia layer
from Google Maps, both by wikimedians (mainly on wikimedia-l) and Google
users + wikimedians (on Google's support forums).
Someone speculated that the Wikipedia/Commons layer was not popular
enough because it was too hidden, but the more I think about it the more
I'm convinced that Google has now built Panoramio to be strong enough
and wants to reinforce it further with its Google Earth/Maps
integration: every time you check a map, you are provided with Panoramio
photos which not only complement Street View but also provide a very
nice tool for geolocation, compensating the rather poor semantics of
many Google maps compared to well-annotated areas of OSM. If you check
Panoramio photos, they have impressive amounts of views.
So, has anyone done a comparison of how well Commons is doing compared
to Panoramio, for the part where their scopes intersect? How are their
comparative popularity, coverage and quality going? What are the
critical features which convince users to upload content to Panoramio,
what do we lack?
Nemo