Geotagging in Flickr now faster, simpler
Date : 2008 08 08 Category : Web Webware.com
On Friday, photo host Flickr introduced a slight tweak to the way users are able to geotag their photos.
Clicking on the "add to your map" option on the right side of any photo now pops up a mini Yahoo Map with an address finder. Previously, users were required to go into Flickr's somewhat complicated Organizr tool and add geotags en masse. If it's your first time using the Flickr map to geotag your photos, you'll still need to hit the Organizr, but only to change the initial privacy settings.
I've already used the system on a handful of photos, and it's far more efficient for one-off shots than using the Organizr tool. However, if you're planning to geotag three or more shots, it might be worth it to stick with the Organizr if only for its batch-editing capabilities.
To help speed up the process of tagging your photos with the new pop-over map, there's a new recommendation system that will suggest landmark locations or neighborhoods, based on where you've dragged your shot. If the system has any potentially overlapping areas, they'll be listed as suggestions that you can simply click on to re-map your shot. I found this to work well with things like parks or general neighborhoods, but for businesses you're out of luck.
On a side note, if you're an iPhone user and wondering why photos you've uploaded to Flickr via e-mail are not showing up on Flickr's map (despite having geocodes in the EXIF data) it seems some of that geodata is being stripped out by Apple before it hits Flickr. To upload shots from your phone without having that information stripped, you can use several third-party Flickr uploaders that tie into Flickr, like AirMe or Flickup.
You can now geo-tag photos right on top of any photo you're looking at. It'll also recommend places nearby in case you're trying to remember where you shot the picture.
(Credit: CNET Networks)