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When a user uses the tag data to ask a question about a specific area ( < the entire world), would it make sense to allow some coordinates to be associated with the question? For example a small map could appear and the user could place a point, or draw a bounding box to show the area that they are interested in.

Examples of questions where this might be of use:

I think this would be a valuable addition to facilitate searching for data sources. One way to implement this could be a tag data-specific which could have lat/long as part of the tag definition; for example data-specific-31.4-0.34. This would enable interesting maps to made using the API to show data sources for around the world.

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    Nice idea. However, would the latlon part of the tag not lead to a huge number of tags, particularly if people use finer resolutions (e.g. 31.42-0.349) for a similar area? Or is there a way to capture coordinates in a 'sub-tag'?
    – Simbamangu
    Sep 29, 2012 at 15:35
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    True; I was hoping only the first part would be used as a tag in it's current form, and rest could be stored like an attribute within a tag. Not sure if such an approach is possible.
    – djq
    Oct 1, 2012 at 15:27
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    I've set this to status-declined because it would result in a limitless number of tags. For any geotagging of questions to be implemented in the SE engine would require researching/asking for a feature request on Meta Stack Exchange rather than on a site-specific meta like ours.
    – PolyGeo Mod
    Jul 15, 2015 at 21:56
  • Actually we already have a collection of such tags. Your first example should have been tagged brazil; the second new-zealand. The third is already tagged europe. Generally speaking, though they're not all linked together, there are tags that can narrow locations. They often start at the continent level, or a region thereof, and go to the country level. Much more detailed than that and you end up with a bunch tags that are probably too specific to really be useful (for example there are no tags for each US state, or Chinese provinces, or individual cities as far as I know).
    – Chris W
    Jul 16, 2015 at 23:02
  • I guess it now exists. I asked this question almost four years ago!
    – djq
    Jul 29, 2015 at 19:41

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Open Street Map supports Bounding Boxes

Example (Greater London, UK)

http://www.openstreetmap.org/?minlon=-0.489&minlat=51.28&maxlon=0.236&maxlat=51.686&box=yes

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    Yes, however my post is more about having some way of keeping track of data sources for different locations.
    – djq
    Sep 28, 2012 at 18:51

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