Geotagging gone wild
A few days ago, I posted about the new geotagging features in Flickr. Turns out, the feature has made quite a splash.
When we were doing our projections for how many photos Flickr members would geotag, we though that we’d hit Spiral Jetty a million in the first month, maybe even as fast as two weeks. Instead, 24 hours in, there were 1,234,384 geotagged photos (and now more than 1.6 million geotagged photos as I write this, about 9 hours later).
That’s incredible. This is going to wind up being an amazing resource. Millions of photos linked geographically to the proper location. How long before sites like Wikipedia incorporate the information natively? Imagine marking the entry about the Grand Canyon with it’s exact coordinates. Then all photos that have been geotagged with that exact locatoin could be pulled in as part of the entry. Would it wind up pulling in some personal vacation photos? Of course it would, but that’s what you get when you have such a massive resource to be able to draw upon. I wonder if there would be some way to rank photos based on relevance?
One other related resource to share though. Zonetag is a little app that you can install on your cell phone that will allow you to upload your photos to Flickr with the geo-information pre-tagged. It uses the method that I speculated about a few months ago. When you take a photo, it tags the photo with the cell tower that you are connected to at the time. Then, when the photo gets uploaded, it will translate that cell tower into true geotags. It does require somebody, anybody, to specify where that cell tower was, but once somebody does it once, it is saved for everybody. While this won’t be 100% accurate (a cell tower covers a pretty fair distance), it does get the photo in the right neighborhood at least, and you can always go back in and tweak it later.
Next step? Zonetag needs to determine y our exact location by using tranagulation. Don’t see that happening any time soon though. Privacy fanatics may have some issues with that one…
Leave a comment
I am exited how this Zonetag works. I have not used it yet, and it is my first time to use such. In any case, I am hoping that it will work out well for me.
Clearance
5/11/2011
ZoneTag helps you to share tags, location and photos. It works better in a community: the more people use it, the easier and more fun it is for everyone to use.
Appointment scheduling software
6/9/2011
Google earth has had photos associated with locations for some time now but I like the viral and web 2.0 features with Zonetag.
Ian
7/17/2011
As a former Google Earth junky, I’m super excited about this and contributing to it. I have about 1000 pictures in hi-def of locations around national and public waterways in Montana.
Ryan Stiles
7/21/2011
I’m not surprised at all. Geotagging rocks – especially if you are going somewhere new and want to check out some pics beforehand.
Hårtørrer
8/17/2011
I agree- it’s not hard to see why Geotagging has taken off so dramatically. Undeniably it’s a fantastic concept and has the key advantages of beginner friendliness and longevity. It’s refreshing to see technology being used in ways that encourage an active lifestyle. All too often it promotes sedentary, solitary activity which is generally to the detriment of a child’s development. Children can always be persuaded to take exercise if the incentive of an exciting new gadget is present and Geotagging really capitalises on this fact. I have to say it doesn’t even feel like exercise- the emphasis is on discovery and having fun and the health benefits that come with this are an added bonus!
Ian Jones´s last blog ..Revealed: England’s Cricket Secrets
Ian Jones
9/4/2011
Zonetag is amazing. It is really nice to see your pictures that can be associated with other networks. I like taking picture but I haven’t had a flicker or anything. I would really like to try this one now.
sam´s last blog ..Are You Freely Creating Love?
sam
11/8/2011
I have tried Zonetag and I must say that is really amazing and captivating. Using it makes my Flickr usage more interesting.
Amie Finton
12/4/2011
We may be beyond help regarding vanishing privacy. Maybe if someone wants to control and manipulate us, they can do it well enough already. May as well relax into it, give up and enjoy all this virtual living within the technology.
All this online time, though, reminds me of Issac Asimov’s “Caves of Steel”. People no longer got together because everyone lived on their own private planet, but was able to view each other in virtual parties as often as they wished.
We are doing more of that, ourselves, by living vicariously through the stored experience of the photo and video archives of other lives rather than our own direct involvement. Our choice, of course, but are we becoming more physically isolated and weaker in health while only feeding our heads and hearts in isolation?
I’m a prime example of this, but I don’t think I’m looking through a fish-eye.
Tabitha
1/31/2012