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.