Google Feature I’m Loving Right Now #4: Wikipedia Map Layer

In this series, I take a look at Google Products I use nearly every day. Previously, I’ve posted about Knowledge Graph, Business Photos, and Tab to Search.

Feature #4: Wikipedia Map Layer

Recently, I was turning on the Google Maps Traffic layer when I noticed a “Wikipedia” link. Curious, I clicked on the link and the resulting overlay was pretty neat. Locations with corresponding Wikipedia articles display a “W” icon that show a teaser paragraph from the Wikipedia page on click. The size of the icon corresponds to the size of the article which is a good indicator of their importance.

This is a great way to learn about historical or significant landmarks in your neighborhood and would also make a great travel aide. Apparently this feature has been around since 2008. So why am I just now noticing it? Well, I was able to find a screen grab of the Maps interface from that time frame for illustration.

Across the top of the page are a ton of options, making it easy to overlook the non-descriptive “More” menu. Also, depending on the time frame, there were a lot of options besides for Wikipedia to choose from. This is a great example of how the Google UI has really cleaned up over the last 5 years.

Do you have any other examples of Google’s slicker interface leading to better feature use or discovery?