Cool New Flickr Mapping Feature

Flickr has just added some fantastic new features for adding geographic data to photos. Including a new map interface in the Organizr that lets you drag and drop photos onto a map. Check it out:


Once you've pinned a photo to the map, a new link appears on the photo page that says "Taken in (map)". Clicking the map link opens up a little map with the thumbnail photo pin. That map gives you the option to view all photos on a user specific map, or view all photos taken nearby. Way cool, I've been looking for something like this for a while. The only drawback is that it's Yahoo maps, not Google maps (Google has much better New Zealand data).

Here's the Flickr Blog writeup:
Flickr Blog: Great shot - where'd you take that?

I've also been messing around with a couple of websites which integrate with the new Google maps API. None of them have exactly everything I want, but they're getting close. The one I like best is called Platial. It lets you create maps, pin locations, describe and tag locations, and associate photos with locations. It does integrate with Flickr, but it's a bit difficult to locate specific photos (it does a search on all photos marked with a Creative Commons license, so you need some distinguishing text in your photo page to find your own stuff).

In any case, I've been using Platial to gradually assemble a map of things to do on the North Island if any of my friends or family come to visit. Take a look:

Platial Map: Stuff to do in a Week on the North Island

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