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Flickr upgrades : New geotagging and Places Pages

Flickr is making important upgrades of geotagging and they are launching a new area called “Places Pages” on the site. These are dedicated pages that provide users with specific information about places with the concept of “interestingness”: see an overview here. For the geotagging upgrades, no changes to the way photos are geotagged (using Yahoo maps), but they are updating the results pages for searches so that users can quickly find photos based on tags and geotagged information. 

technorati tags: Flick geotagging gps

Breaking (and geocoded) news on MediaScrape

It's cool to find news by clicking on a map, isnt'it ? Well in 2006, a Montreal-based  "Internet TV News Network" has been launched to deliver free, all-video broadcast news clips using Web technology.

First it was called MediaScrape, then it changed its name to Internet Broadcast Corp. (and the to URL NuVu.tv) then back again to the original name with a new site redesign, a new Google Maps integration, more content providers, new funding. (It was Youtube in fact that insisted for the original name). The site made partnership with YouTube to provide language-specific content to YouTube's regional sites, like YouTube UK, Ireland, Brazil, Turkey, and so on...

The idea is of course to digitize analogue TV broadcasts in a format that is high-quality video, on-demand, translated on location, interactive, free, searchable and archived. And now MediaScrape is a Google NewsMap which is partnered directly with broadcast news outlets such as the BBC, CBC, Asia News International and 25 other leading global news broadcasters.

Their database has 35,000 news clips : to get started you can click on a region to see top news clips plotted to a Google Map based on their specific location.

You can see the press release, here.   

TwitterVision & Google 3D Warehouse

Twitter, the social networking and microblogging service lets you now see recent Tweets in a 3D view.The service is called TwitterVision and it's like the new Google Maps mashup called ModelVision that lets you see 3D models added to the 3D Warehouse. You have a choice of to see the most recent, the highest rated, or the most popular. 

technorati tags: Twitter TwitterVision Google 3D Warehouse ModelVision

PixGPS - New Geotagging Software

We have already talked about geotagging digital photos, here.We can also add to these web sites a new software : PixGPS is a new photo Geotagging available for Microsoft Windows, a software that can calculate the exact location where you took your photos and store this in the photo file. You can also view the location of photos on maps, in Google Earth, or save the coordinates as a comma separated text file. All you need is a GPS Receiver with tracking capabilities. You turn on the GPS and put it in your camera bag or a pocket. When you take the photos you can download them and the GPS will track file to your computer. So PixGPS can read the track file and calculate the latitude/longitude for each photo: couple of minutes for hundreds of photos !  Cool, isnt'it ?

technorati tags: geotagging photos pixGPS

ViaMichelin launches its API

ViaMichelin annonced the release of its ViaMichelin Maps & Drive API: a product range dedicated to tourism, travel and leisure sectors ! This system allows easy integration of maps, itineraries, checking address and the ViaMichelin hotel reservation engine into your website.

There are two versions of that API, based on the Javascript  technology allowing more customization in web applications: free and professional version, with additional advanced functionalities and content. You can click here to see different services and here for more info.

technorati tags: ViaMichelin API maps navigation geolocalisation 

See your family tree on google maps

You surely know Geni, the great tool to create a family tree through a simple interface. Now it's possible to view all of your family's current locations and birthplaces on a map ! You can choose who you want to see on the map including anyone in your family or family friends.

You don't know much about your family history ? Just start, then expand your tree by adding relatives' email addresses. They will be invited to join your tree and can add other relatives. Your tree will continue to grow as relatives invite other relatives, so help you branch out the tree in other directions. Every member of the tree also has their own profile in which they can share pictures and other information ! Cool, isnt'it ?

technorati tags: Geni family tree geotag

Ipernity: the pocket knife of the web 2.0

If you are a Flickr fan and you insist on staying so, forget about this post. But If you're OK to see an alternative : Discover Ipernity !

It's a photo sharing social network which looks like an improvement of Flickr services. It can perform all the features at Flickr like uploading photos, add to favorites, add notes, view all sizes, embed photos to your blog/site, make comments, add tags, etc…. But with Ipernity you can also blog post, add videos, music files and make your music play-list within a few clicks.  As you can generate your own web space with all the content that you upload in organized page and share,  Ipernity is also called "the  multi-function pocket knife of the web 2.0".
Here is some summary features that ipernity can perform :

• To create one or more groups.
• To create Albums Multi-media (photo, its, video, files)
• To create Blog
• To divide (by network, email)
• To index/File all documents or notes
• To divide tags between the members of its networks
• To communicate with your network (by Email, Cat, Bittorrent)
• To create shared events and to manage a calendar

Ps: Not the most important feature but so cool : You can get dressed the way you want to, choose the colors to customize your page :

technorati tags: Flickr Ipernity social networking tag photos 

GeoFeed : Flickr Photos

Dan Catt from Flickr is working on a way to subscribe to a feed of photos taken at a given lat/long. His latest post includes London and San Francisco as examples of Geofeed. Interesting.

technorati tags: Geotag Flickr GeoFeed

BBC GeoStories: Tagging the news

BBC is experimenting with tagging stories, sounds, photos and video to its location on a map.

First exemples can be seen at GeoStories : Those taking part in the project were equipped with a Nokia N-series phone, and a Garmin GPS device. The aim was to explore a kind of storytelling fixed to geographical locations.

Find here the story of GeoStories.

technorati tags: geotagging mashups GepStories

Flickrvision : Try it...at home !

Just released yesterday, Flickrvision shows realtime, geolocated Flickr photos.

Flickrvision is the brainchild of David Troy, the developer who created the original Twittervision. The new site is certainly hypnotic and addictive. So we recommend you not to look at it at work, you risk  to pass hours in front of your PC :-)

technorati tags: Flickrvision Twittervision geolocated photos

Have Mappy on your mobile

Mappy offers a free software for GPS on its web-site so you can have Mappy services on your mobile phone. To have a map of your choice on your mobile with practical infos or to calculate an itinerary with simple and effective indications, you can try this software.

technorati tags: mappy navigation maps GPS

Waymarking : The next GPS game

Groundspeak (the team behind geocaching.com) has a new urban friendly-social network geocaching site called Waymarking. It's an online GPS game where players look for items from categories, then post a picture of the item and its GPS coordinates on the site.

While GPS technology allows to pinpoint any location on the planet, mark the location and share it with others, Waymarking is the toolset for categorizing and adding unique information for that location. The site  describes a waymark as "a physical location on the planet marked by coordinates (latitude/longitude) and contains unique information defined within its waymark category. An outdoor maze waymark category, for example, could contain information like price of admission and days of operation..." Have a look to their massive category list here ! The players have to use GPS coordinates to find hidden items.

Interested? Read the article of the News Tribune here and try-it !

technorati tags: geotagging Waymarking geocaching GPS

Jobo PhotoGPS

Here is another GPS georeferencer for digital cameras, the Jobo PhotoGPS : It's an autonomous GPS device that you affix to the flash shoe of a digital SLR camera, so that when you takes a picture, it knows to save the time and location.  But this data does not get written into the EXIF data of the picture, you have to do that later, after both the pics and the GPS data are downloaded on your computer. 

The  cool thing about this is that it works with any camera with a hot shoe. It's  a similar product to Sony GPS-CS1, even the price : 149 € .  Find more info here.

technorati tags: Jobo PhotoGPS Sony Geotagging