Category: mapping

As a company dedicated to making interactive maps from spreadsheets, we talk a lot about Excel. First released in the 1980s, it was one of the first popular spreadsheet tools on the market. It also now seems to be the industry standard.

But when Google Sheets came to town in 2006, it rose in popularity, so much so that you now have converts to the program who swear they’ll never open Excel again. Where do we fall on the topic? We’re fans of anything that will hold our location data. But, since we already looked at Excel tips from the guy who built it, let’s go over three reasons Google’s option is supreme when we compare Google Sheets vs Excel.

1. Collaborate In Real-Time with Google Sheets

Let’s start off with what is perhaps the top reason that, when it comes to Microsoft Excel vs Google Sheets, Sheets reigns supreme: collaboration. Be it co-workers teaming up on a project or a chore chart between spouses, Google Sheets has always made it easy (and free!) for multiple users to edit a sheet at the same time.

On the other hand, Excel’s desktop version just recently began offering real-time collaboration to its paying customers, though each spreadsheet must be stored in OneDrive or SharePoint in Microsoft 365. Previously, users had to manually save, download, and email each updated version back and forth to one another, which continues to be the case for files not stored in Microsoft’s preferred manner. As for Excel’s less well-known cloud version, it may be comparable to Google Sheets’ collaboration capabilities.

In Sheets, simply share any spreadsheet stored anywhere with your desired collaborators to work on it together, seeing each other’s changes right as you make them. Not to mention you can live chat with users currently working on the spreadsheet with you, making communication much more efficient than a string of emails. And to keep track of who has edited what, Google Sheets once again has the only clean solution.

2. Sheet’s Version History Further Encourages Collaboration

Google Sheets also aids collaboration with their built-in Version history.

While Excel has a similar option to view previous versions of a file, according to Microsoft, version history only works for files stored in OneDrive or SharePoint in Microsoft 365.

But with Google Sheets, you don’t have to do anything to ensure your Version history is generated—it’s automatic. This allows you and your collaborators to track your progress without any setup. Get started with Sheets’ Version history via the keyboard shortcut Command + Option + Shift + H or by navigating to File, Version history, See version history—or even name the current version.

But this isn’t even the last benefit of Google Sheets vs Excel. Let’s move on to reason #3.

3. Access from All Your Devices

Yet another reason Google Sheets comes out on top is how easy it is to access your data at any time on any device, which, in a way, is collaborating with yourself. In Excel, you can only access spreadsheets that are on your computer. Whereas Google Sheets allows you to access your spreadsheets on multiple devices (even at the same time).

Whether it’s your phone, iPad, library computer, or boss’s laptop, this is the benefit of a 100% browser-based spreadsheet tool. Simply log in to your Google account on your desired device to have every sheet you’ve ever created in Sheets available wherever you are.

And when you’re done? Log out to prevent anyone else from accessing your information. Or, if it’s your device, you can remain logged in for easy access in the future.

With an idea of how collaborating is better in Google Sheets vs Excel, we can move on to another way of sharing our work.

Continue the Collab with Shared Maps

In the question of which is better, Google Sheets vs Excel, the evidence seems to show collaboration is best in Google Sheets. But don’t let that stop with your spreadsheets. In the same spirit, continue collaborating when you map your location data with BatchGeo.

View Most Common City Names in a full screen map

Share your interactive creation with friends and fans on social media or, you can also share your map with an even wider audience by copying and pasting to embed it into your website.

January 2022 marks the third year the world has to deal with the no-longer-novel coronavirus. While we’re on the topic of anniversaries, 100 years ago, many historical events took place. So what happened in 1922 that you should care about? The major events in 1922 can be divided into 10 categories, including education, disaster, food and health, and wars. Beyond the aftermath of World War I, other skirmishes were fought throughout the year. So let’s take a look at the 129 most important 1922 events from 100 years ago on the map below.

View 100 Years Since 1922 in a full screen map

Wikipedia’s data is the source of information for these 1922 events. Group the map by categories like media, strikes and revolutions, and sports. Or, for a more in-depth look at the trends within these 10 categories, keep reading.

Major Events in 1922 by Category

We broke them down into 11 categories with events adding up to 129 for easier digestion (yes, food is a category!)

• Politics (46)
• War (33)
• Media (20)
• Disaster (6)
• Education (6)
• Strikes & revolutions (5)
• Sports (5)
• Food & health (3)
• Animals (3)
• Culture (3)
• Transport (2)

Some examples include the several educational opportunities that arose in 1922. New schools opened along with a Black sorority’s first chapter (Alpha Kappa Alpha’s Lambda Chapter) in New York. Additionally, an English archaeologist unearthed the entrance to Pharaoh Tutankhamun’s tomb in Egypt. He and his team were the first inside in 3,000+ years.

Disaster also struck in 1922, be it natural or otherwise. This included the first mid-air collision of two planes over Poix-de-Picardie in France. A British airplane carrying mail hit a French plane containing three passengers. Seven people died in total. For more on the history of place collisions, see 550+ Major Plane Crashes.

Moreover, the Swatow typhoon disastrously hit Shantou, China in 1922. The result was 5,000+ people dead. Find out if it was one of the Most Disastrous Natural Disasters in our post on the topic.

Food & Health

As for food, just two related events grace the map, along with a single notable health discovery. First up, 1922 was the year an Australian invented Vegemite. Spread on sandwiches, toast, crumpets, and cracker biscuits, it’s a staple for many in the Land Down Under.

Additionally, the Eskimo Pie ice cream bar was created in the U.S. this year. However, it would later be renamed as a result of the Reported Name Changes Due to George Floyd Protests. On June 19, 2020, makers agreed “Eskimo” can be racist towards Arctic indigenous peoples (like the Inuit and Yupik). It will rebrand, along with several other frozen treats and sports teams that contain the same name.

And in a win for those with diabetes, a Toronto-based scientist created the first successful insulin treatment. Too bad a treatment for disagreements between countries wasn’t also discovered.

War-Related 1922 Events

We could hardly mention the 1922 events related to war without including the five cases involving post-World War I German hyperinflation.

While the Great War ended in 1918, rapid price increases made it so that it took 563 German marks to buy one U.S. dollar in the middle of 1922. That continued to rise throughout the rest of the year to 1,000, and then 3,000 marks. Ultimately, the year ended with 7,000 marks needed to buy $1.

As a result of the hyperinflation (along with other unfortunate events, like the assassinations also noted on the map), the Weimar Republic asked for a three-year break on payments.

Other events related to a post-war world took place in Genoa, Italy, where representatives for 34 countries met to discuss finances in the wake of the war.

But more than post-WWI, smaller, yet still impactful wars were also fought, including the Greco-Turkish War, Irish Civil War, and Russian Civil War. You can discover more specifics about these incidents on the map when you group by war and navigate to the respective areas. But that’s not all there is left to learn.

Learn More About Past Years

The major events in 1922, such as the invention of Vegemite and Germany’s struggles to pay off war debts can still affect the world to this day—in good ways and bad. Now that you’re an expert about what happened in 1922, be sure to check out our previous posts highlighting the events of 100 years prior: 100 years since 1917, 1918, 1919, 1920, and 1921.

Type Portland into Google Maps and you’ll be directed to one of two cities in Oregon or Maine. But this isn’t the only example of cities with the same name in different U.S. states, nor is it the most popular.

The most common town name in USA and other common city names are often named for famous individuals like past presidents. In fact, as you’ll see, one man is responsible for two of the top 10 names. We’ll also touch on the coasts with the most, which is only illuminated thanks to a map, like the one below.

View Most Common City Names in a full screen map

Mapped are 10 of the most common U.S. place names from Wikipedia’s list. We pulled only the top 10, which was enough to fill our interactive map with over 360 customizable markers. Click around to explore the map, or read on for some insights into the data.

Five Most Common City Names

To kick off the commonly named places, we’ll take a look at the only ones with cities,
towns, CDPs, and villages all named after the same thing. Here’s a breakdown of those five.

• Washington (46 places)
• Franklin (43)
• Clinton (39)
• Centerville (38)
• Arlington (38)

As for the #1 most common place name, a whopping 46 places in the U.S. are named Washington, likely after the nation’s first President. Lots are, of course, cities, including Washington and Washington Terrace, Utah, Ohio’s Washington and Washington Court House, along with Washington and North Washington in Iowa—you get the idea. Many of these Washington-inspired cities are located throughout the Midwest in the previously mentioned Ohio and Iowa, along with Wisconsin, Missouri, Kansas, Indiana, and Illinois.

In addition to the 46 mapped cities, towns, villages, and boroughs, etc., we can’t forget about the state of Washington and that there is a Washington County in 31 of the 50 states. Which technically adds up to 91 places. Not to mention the 8th most common U.S. place name, with 33 namesakes, Georgetown, is often named due to this particular George, among a few others.

Other common place names likely inspired by past statesmen are Franklin (as in Benjamin), with 43 copycat locations, and Clinton (a New York family with a vice president and two governors, and more) with 39. But we can’t forget about the others on the map, including Greenville (31), formerly known as Buttsville. Clearly the most common of these are cities, but let’s investigate the other types next.

Top Five Types

While Washington outranked Franklin above, when it comes to cities bearing their names, they’re just about even. Both have 16 scattered around the country and an equal (8) amount of towns. On the other hand, 14 cities are named for one Clinton or another.

Instead of cities, unincorporated communities (10) are the most common place named after Centerville, along with three places that just call themselves unincorporated, though cities are right behind at 9. And exactly 10 cities are dubbed Arlington, in addition to seven ​​unincorporated communities.

For a more detailed breakdown of the rest of the common place names, check out the map. As for an overall breakdown?

• city (114)
• town (92)
• CDP (37)
• village (30)
• unincorporated community (30)

With an idea of the five most common names and their types, let’s move on to the coast with the most.

The Coast with the Most Commonly Named Places

The map makes the Midwest and East Coast’s preference towards these common names clear (though that coast did have a 200-year head start). Specifically, Illinois is home to 21 commonly named places, including eight Centerville’s and two Arlington’s, Clinton’s, Fairview’s, and Washington’s. New York, on the other hand, is full of 20 other popular city names like four Clinton’s and three Greenville’s and Washington’s.

Aso thanks to the map, we clearly note contiguous Nevada and New Mexico come up with all original names for their cities and towns—at least where these common names are concerned. Both of these states, along with Alaska and Hawaii, have zero places named after those we’ve mentioned.

What else becomes obvious is that maps illuminate insights we might otherwise miss. See what our free map-making tool can illuminate in your data at batchgeo.com.