Geoblogging: Mapping photos

Rich Pav Cool Website, General, Oooh, Look!, Technolust

I live for this stuff. Someone mashed together Google Maps, Flickr, Firefox, and Greasemonkey to make it incredibly easy to show exactly where a photo was taken.

Here’s an example. Click on the photo below to go to the photo’s page on flickr.com. On that page, click on the hyperlink “GeoTagged” below the photo. It’ll take you to the geoblogger.com site and show you on a map the exact location where it was taken.

Shinjuku Station

If you’re willing to click one more time, click on the “satellite” link in the top right corner of the map to see the location on a satellite photo of Tokyo. Zoom all the way in and you’ll see Shinjuku Station.

This is so simple to do that I’ll definitely be tagging the photos that accompany soundseeing tours. If you have flickr account and are somewhat technically savvy, instructions are here.

Being attention deficient is a good personality trait for podcasters, isn’t it? (Except when having to edit hours and hours of audio.)

Apparently there’s also a way to import the data into Google Earth, but I’ll leave that for another day. It’s a great app to play with if you have a powerful enough PC and video card.

Here’s a fun activity: Learn how to zoom in on your house starting from all the way out in space. If you’re ever abducted and you manage to comandeer an alien dingy to make your escape, this skill surely will come in handy.

Rich Pav

Richard has been living in Japan since 1990 with his wife and two teenage sons, Tony and Andy.

4 thoughts to “Geoblogging: Mapping photos”

  1. Wow pretty cool. I’ll definitely have to do this for some of my photos. This is neat. Also, great video-cast (soundseeing / soundscene) tour of Shibuya too. Keep up the great work!

  2. I realize that the video stuff must be a pain in the rear to deal with but the IT IS ABSOLUTELY GREAT!!! It is neat as all get out to listen to your comments, see the people, the signs, kiosks, etc. of everyday life. If this is not too great a hassle KEEP IT UP!!!!

  3. Ok…so I am only now getting around to seeing your videocasts!! The take a ticket and walk to work videos were GREAT

  4. Hi Rich, I see that the google maps for Japan are off a few blocks. Shinjuku Station is now at the top of a building a few blocks away (great satalite photo, just wrong) and so are others I have seen in Tokyo. Any idea what the deal is?

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