whatwhere

Whatwhere is a term used to describe a class of information retrieval and data presentation approaches that combine content descriptors (the what) with geospatial context (the where). In practice, whatwhere refers to interfaces or data models that surface items by both their nature and location, enabling queries that specify an object type and a place or radius.

The word is a portmanteau of what and where. It has no formal, universally accepted definition but appears in design discussions, product roadmaps, and research literature as shorthand for local or location-aware search tasks. It is distinct from broader spatial search by emphasizing the pairing of item identity with place.

Whatwhere concepts are used in local discovery apps, content management with geotags, and spatial information retrieval systems. Examples include finding restaurants within a city, documents tied to a site, or media tagged with location data. Data models often attach what attributes (type, category, name) to whatwhere entities, and where attributes (coordinates, area, region) to enable proximity- or region-based filtering.

Challenges include data quality and harmonization across sources, privacy and consent concerns when location data is involved, and the computational complexity of combining high-dimensional attributes with geospatial queries. Cross-language and cultural localization can further complicate whatwhere systems.

Related topics include geotagging, geospatial databases, spatial indexing, location-based services, and search interface design.