Tagged: Geotagging RSS

  • Tom Goskar 2:00 pm on 22 January, 2007 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Geotagging, , tagmap,   

    Yahoo Tag Maps 

    Yahoo have just released a service called TagMaps, allowing you to display a tag cloud of the most interesting terms attached to geotagged Flickr photos on an interactive map.

    TagMaps are a new way to visualize text on geographic maps. TagMaps can be used to communicate key characteristics of location-based data in an easy-to-understand way.

    A TagMap can be embedded into into your website (for non-commercial use):

    It’s not as useful as it might first appear though. The only tags that show are the most “interesting” (often just the most tags for an area), hence the above example for Salisbury shows “cathedral, Old Sarum, and Salisbury” and nothing more granular than that. And you have to click the “View on World Explorer” text at the top to actually see the photos. The tag “cathedral” actually disappears when you zoom in closer, for example. There’s some work to go, it seems.

    I like the idea though – it could have some useful heritage applications, which could be especially useful as satellite and aerial photography is improved on the service. Imagine looking at the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape – a big area indeed. Seeing words like “tin” or “copper” or “engine house” etc etc could enable you to explore some photos and narrow down where to go and visit according to your interest.

    One to watch as it develops.

    Link: Yahoo TagMaps
    Seen on: O’Reilly Radar: World Explorer, Explore Your Town With Flickr

     

    • Tijl 3:26 pm on 22 January, 2007 Permalink

      this might be useful for creating a TagMap: there’s a little application to get GeoRSS feeds for Flickr photos @ http://geothings.ning.com/flicked.php

    • Russell Hancock 5:09 pm on 22 January, 2007 Permalink

      There is a “google earth” feed that lists some of the thousands of mines avaliable on the site http://www.russellhancock.co.uk. A similar idea?

    • Mor 6:44 pm on 22 January, 2007 Permalink

      Thanks for the post – and the deficiencies you point out are absolutely on the mark. The problem is not in the application, though, but in the data (always blame the data…). When more photos are available (more and more people upload and geotag their photos on Flickr), finer details will emerge in higher and higher resolutions all around the world. So, the tagmap that you show on this page might actually be a lot better next time we update our servers.

  • Tom Goskar 10:59 am on 5 September, 2006 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , Geotagging, ,   

    Flickr does Geotagging 

    I’m a little slow in reporting this since I’ve been away on holiday, but Flickr have announced that geotagging is now one of their built-in features.

    Geotagging within Flickr

    This is a great move, since it can be quite daunting if you’re really into knowing (and seeing) where photos were taken, but don’t want to move over to rival Zooomr, or delve into some of the arcane geotagging browser extensions or 3rd party tools. It’s all done within Flickr’s Organizr, and it’s all drag and drop. You can even set levels of accuracy, i.e. associating photos with whole cities, or even down to street level.
    (More …)

     

    • Eduardo Manchon 10:38 am on 6 September, 2006 Permalink

      Flickr geotagging interface is brilliant, but Yahoo Maps coverage for most of the World is very poor. This is a important issue because Flickr’s geotagging interface is not designed for accuracy, but for massive geotagging, what it is perfect for some people, but not for others.

      If you prefer Google Maps for mapping your photos via drag and drop interface and you care about accuracy, our project, Panoramio, may be interesting for you. Btw, you can later watch the photos in Google Earth KML feed, a much better experience than web based maps.

      Eduardo

  • Tom Goskar 2:08 pm on 18 July, 2006 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , Geotagging, , spatial, zooomr   

    Geotagging Photos: Zooomr 


    Silbury Hill, Wiltshire
    Silbury Hill, Wiltshire
    Hosted on Zooomr

    There’s one thing that Flickr doesn’t support natively, and that is the ability to ‘geotag’ photos. In a nutshell, geotagging is just associating spatial data (i.e. a set of coordinates) showing where you took a particular photo (or where the subject is located). You could then see where it was taken on a map, or browse photos via a mapping service such as Google Maps.

    A number of determined people have written hacks to get geotagging into Flickr. But these often use a plugin for Firefox called Greasemonkey, and a further set of scripts to build in the functionality into your photo pages. If you’re not technically minded, it’s not easy to do, and I think that most people will be put off by this approach.

    If you do use extensions such as GMiF, coordinates are stored in with your tags, so your tag lists will eventually become cluttered with tags such as “geotagged” and “geo:lat=51.519606″ etc. It’s not very elegant, but it does work.

    Zooomr photo sharing
    Step in Zooomr.

    Zooomr have built geotagging right into the heart of the system, with elegance. Your geotags are nicely hidden away (but still accessible). Viewing where photos were taken, or simply browsing photos by location on a map are all built-in, and very easy to use. Not to mention kind to the eyes.

    Zooomr doesn’t yet have the community aspect that Flickr does. Community is what makes Flickr so brilliant, and it is now very well established. I think that startups like Zooomr fill a nice gap at the moment, and help to keep giants like Flickr innovating and on their toes.

    Good luck Zooomr!

     

    • Kristopher Tate 2:37 pm on 18 July, 2006 Permalink

      Hi there and thanks for posting Zooomr!

      I suppose I’ve tried to make sure that geotagging is as simple and easy as possible. Though, in regard to community, we’re steadfast on building community systems into the whole picture.

      Flickr does a good job, but there is just sooo much more than can be done when you look at it.

      Looking forward to showing it to you and others.

      Best,

      Kristopher Tate

    • Tom 3:10 pm on 18 July, 2006 Permalink

      Thanks for responding Kristopher – it’s encouraging to know that a) you’re managing to run Zooomr and still reply personally on people’s blogs, and b) that community tools are on there way. This is great news.

      On a social level, people are tied to places, not just on a physical level – but memories of places, and pictures are memories in a way. To be able to tie the two together in a natural way is certainly the way forward, especially since GPS is beginning to appear in digital cameras now.

      Keep it up! :-)

    • Paul 1:30 pm on 28 July, 2006 Permalink

      That’s the way forward; gps feeding straight into a camera. I like the idea of geotagging but in practice, it’s a bit of a pain. There are fields within the exif metadata standard for location, so why not use them and automatically populate them from a gps unit…? Ideal solution :-)

      atb,
      Paul.

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