Wikimapia

Wikimapia is pretty much integrating something like Google maps and Wikipedia. You might be surprised that on clicking the link, you saw a map of North Korea's secretive Office 39 (which is rarely heard of and not found in Google Maps). Wikimapia can be modified by anyone - an example of Web 2.0 technology. When we modify geographical locations in Wikimapia, we can add pictures of the location, description of the place, and link other sources of information.

Because this is a site that is enhanced by the collaboration of its users, it brings in much more light of how an area can really be. We can have locals of a given area provide first hand knowledge of say a rural town in Mexico better than a site like Google maps.

Above is a picture of an airbase in Syria. We will likely not find something like this on Google maps because it is very likely that Google does not have such access to Syrian infrastructure and locations. Since users can contribute to maps, we can have a resident identify locations, such as the image above.       

Below is an instructional video on adding locations to Wikimapia.                           

Try finding what you want on Wikimapia. It's a map created by people like you!