GEOTAGGING

Wow. Talk about crowdsourcing! (Notre Dame Cathedral images) And how come his "SeeDragon"(?) isn't working on MY computer?
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Here's one of the photos I geotagged in my Flickr account (lost in Rome during the filming of my documentary).

We were outside Rome looking for the Church of the Three Fountains (Tre Fontani) on the location where St. Paul is believed to have been beheaded (the pillar is still there behind a grate). Our tour guide and other folks on the pilgrimage took off without me and the camera crew and we didn't see which direction they went. We wandered for over an hour carrying heavy camera equipment (and the camera guy had a bad back). I asked the locals: "Dove la Chiesa degli Tre Fontani?" And, like all helpful locals the world over, they had never heard of it. Conclusion: we DID find the church, took tons of video and didn't use a darn piece of it in the documentary. :)
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My experience geotagging--like many of my DIY tech experiences--was a bit arduous. I finally had to Google for some instructions and then was on my way. Flickr had a better time finding locations in USA. Italy was more difficult (whether or not I put the information in English or Italian). You have to be patient after you search because it looks like it's not doing anything but in about 30 seconds it will give you a result. If it doesn't give a result, you may have to re-enter the information several times. Sometimes what pops up goes away immediately, so read it quickly just to know what IS possible for Flickr to find.

The most difficult thing was finding EXACT locations. For the most part (even in the USA) it found the general location. Entering a street address, not just the institution name/city works best. The most accurate, easiest time I had of it was entering the exact street location of the Hilton Garden Inn in Staten Island, New York. It put a little blue "pin" and let me drag my picture exactly to that pin.

I'm just wondering what the purpose of doing this in Flickr is (I could understand doing it in Google Maps--but who is searching for these types of random photos in Flickr?)

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Here are some security measures you can take to protect your location and also remove geotags with Picasa. I hate to be a Debby Downer, but I've seen YouTubes about how thieves use geotagging to burglar your bling or crash your crib. Or you.

Incidentally, I didn't know that since 2005, the government requires all smartphones have GPS! Of course, what's the point of smartphone without it?




And...tracking people by their cellphones--if they have their cellphones on them (and finding cellphones) even WITHOUT GPS! All you need is their phone #. You can also pay for cheap services that will find people/phones: