Share photos with the world

Posted on 7 Dec 2007 at 11:24

The site is moderated by human administrators, who'll manually check that each of the photos meets their reasonably strict guidelines before adding it to the Geographic Web layer for everyone to see. The guidelines state that all uploaded photos should be exterior shots of landscapes, streets or monuments and that the main subject of the photo shouldn't be a person, animal, car or a special event. In other words, Panoramio wants the service to become a pictorial tourist guide, not an ego-trip for globetrotters. This degree of human moderation means there can be a considerable delay before your photos appear in Google Earth. We uploaded our photo on 10 October and were warned that it wouldn't show up on Google Earth before 15 November.

Sadly, and rather inexplicably, Panoramio isn't integrated with Picasa, so you'll need to register on the site and upload all your photos again. Photos that have the geotags already stored in the picture's EXIF data will be automatically located, or you can pinpoint the location of the snaps using the onscreen map.
Once geotagged, your pictures will appear in the relevant spot every time you hover over the location - perfect for sharing photos of a trip with friends.