Geotagging

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Geotagging = the ability to tag by geographic location


Definition

From the Wikipedia:

"Geotagging is the process of adding geographical identification metadata to various media such as photographs, video, websites, or RSS feeds and is a form of geospatial metadata. These data usually consist of latitude and longitude coordinates, though they can also include altitude, bearing, accuracy data, and place names.

Geotagging can help users find a wide variety of location-specific information. For instance, one can find images taken near a given location by entering latitude and longitude coordinates into a Geotagging-enabled image search engine. Geotagging-enabled information services can also potentially be used to find location-based news, websites, or other resources.[1]

Less commonly, this process has been called geocoding (ie. a geocoded photograph), a term that more often refers to the process of taking non-coordinate based geographical identifiers, such as a street address, and finding associated geographic coordinates (or vice versa for reverse geocoding)." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeoTagging)


Description

Juan Martin Prada:

"Therefore, Geotagging activities are becoming more habitual on the Web, that is, assigning spatial coordinates to certain files, such as georeferencing photographs on platforms such as Flickr, Google Earth, etc. or assigning geographic identifiers to text files and even video and audio documents (geoparsing). Geo-referencing images is an activity already performed by photographic cameras that include GPS systems: the date, place, or type of event photographed are metadata included in the photographic document at the time it is created. There are even “in-site” applications such as GeoNotes that allow users to “tag” physical space, leaving notes in the places where they are located or reading the notes other users have left there.


The popularization of actions to “annotate the planet” is one of the most significant processes in the development of the second era of the Internet.

The expression “The Earth as universal desktop”is even becoming popular.

Geo-referencing practices understand geographic localization not only as a coordinate, a dot on a map, but also in relation to the experiences of the persons who were there.

The result is generally the generation of open maps, a sort of update of maps showing “points of interest”. Actually, the “Geo-spatial Web” brings depth and richness back to geography after many years when the field provided merely cartographic, objective descriptions of places. The texts and other information added to satellite photographs of the territory inevitably invite comparisons with the plaques on buildings that mark where someone was born or died, just as the thumbtacks marking spots on geobrowsers bring to mind the flowers that relatives place periodically at the site of a car accident where they lost a family member." (IDC mailing list)



Examples

  • "A number of websites already allow users to add location information to their pictures and to search geographically, including Zooomr, a photo-sharing site; Mappr, which maps Flickr photos; and Platial, an online atlas built with user-generated pictures, video, and comments.

Flickr's geotagging feature may distinguish itself, however, in its ease of use and efficiency. To tag a picture with a location, a user simply drags the image from a panel to a location the Yahoo map. Within about a minute, internal search-engine technology at Yahoo updates the photo and tag database, allowing the picture to be searched." (http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=17427&ch=infotech)


  • "GeoGraffiti, for example, allows mobile phone users to record a message tied to a specific place that is later retrievable by anyone who finds themselves near the same location. Geotaggers can leave a virtual "Kilgore was here" tag at any place, freezing in time and making publicly available their location-specific activities, interactions and thoughts."

(http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9134640/Social_media_takes_to_the_streets)

  • "Foursquare and Britekite. Mobile phone users can discover each other, both friends and strangers, via profiles they make available at a particular location. Such applications are good for networking on the fly and immediately finding out if your friends are nearby at a given time."

(http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9134640/Social_media_takes_to_the_streets)