Panoramio Anyone?

Not long ago, I discovered a website called Panoramio, whose tag line is “Photos of the World”. It is a geographical photo collaboration site that uses Google Earth and Google Maps to link photos to the exact location from which they were taken. All uploaded photos (subject to review), will be included in Google Maps through Panoramio’s interface. During Google’s review they may also choose photos to include in Google Earth. This is a really fun way to contribute and view photos taken all around the world.

To participate, create an account then upload your own photos¹ of interesting landmarks and views from around the world. You can then use Panormaio’s “map it” feature² by placing the marker at the spot where the picture was taken (not the location of the subject in the photo). I uploaded four photos a couple months ago and just now uploaded the above photo of Price Lake with Grandfather Mountain in the distance. After logging back in recently, I was delighted to find that one of my photos has been chosen to be in the latest version of Google Earth. On behalf of Wall to Wall Photos, I plan on submitting some of my father’s photos from around the world as well. They also have monthly contests for various categories such as “Scenery”, “Heritage”, “Travel” and “Unusual Location”. Want to join in on the fun? Please leave a comment with a link to the photos you choose to share.

UPDATE: Four of the five photos I have submitted have been chosen to appear in Google Earth. The fifth one which I just recently submitted is in the standard review process right now.

1. According to the their current terms of service, copyright holders retain all rights to submitted content. [↩]
2. Those individuals with GPS data attached to their photo will not need to perform this extra step. Your photo will be placed on the map automatically. [↩]

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