Many people use the Internet to search for geographically local information, with a growing number of websites dedicated to this task. However, it is not clear exactly how users integrate geographic search with content-based search, nor how to obtain reliable information about places in a geographic region. We created Sharescape, a map-based application in which information is contributed by community members. We conducted a user study to evaluate the utility of this means of obtaining information and to investigate how users integrate geographic and content-based search. Our results suggest that 1) maps create an implicit context in an interface that designers should honor, 2) community-maintained information about local geography has important benefits over information mined from web sites, and 3) users often are not aware of the privacy implications of their actions, and therefore designers should incorporate special privacy safeguards.
['Ken Reily', 'Pamela J. Ludford', 'Loren G. Terveen']
Sharescape: an interface for place annotation