»geocoding«

After the great feedback on the Localize Bookmarklet I got the next secret something for you guys: A tool to browse the world of Flickr photos!

Here you are: http://loc.alize.us/

Key features:
- Tag Cloud: Filter results by specific topics.
- Find People: See where your or your friends have been.
- Place Search: Find any place all around the world.
- Fast Map Interface: Smooth zoom, map/satellite/hybrid mode.
- Fullscreen Preview: See your photos in high quality.
- Shareable URLs: Copy and send dynamic anchors

Hope you will spend some relaxed hours using it. I did it in the past few months ;)

And, hey: Don't worry if something strange happend or if you can't find the right features you were looking for. Just drop your comment here and I will care about it!

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Google just upgraded their Google Maps API to Version 2.55 and integrated a free Geocoder which supports the process of converting addresses into geographic coodinates.

I have not found any information about this on the official of unofficial Google Maps Weblog and the provided samples do not work yet. But I am sure the guys are working hard to get this running today!

You can access the Maps API geocoder directly by sending HTTP requests to Google, or you can use the GClientGeocoder object to send those requests from within the Javascript. Whether you make the geocoding calls from your server or the user's browser is up to you.

Update: It's now official and examples are working!
... http://www.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/#Geocoding_Examples

I just spend some time to create a slim bookmarklet that enables mapping, geocoding and (of course) geotagging directly in your Flickr photo page. It works with all common browsers (Firefox, IE, Safari, Opera) without the need for any extension.

To run it, simply drag it to your tool bar, visit one of your photo pages, hit it again and your done. No sluggishly page refresh, just simple AJAX style behind the curtain ;)

UPDATE
- Switch to fullscreen version (NEW)
- Smooth zoom when map was double clicked (NEW)
- Link to map added in description (NEW)
- Batch tagging: Remember last saved location (NEW)
- See where someone else's photo has been taken
- GeoCoder adjusted (try search for "nyc", "10101")
- Long/Lat input possible (eg. "N 40°45', W 73°59'")
- Easy EXIF geo data extraction (if you've used GPS-devices)

Localize Bookmarklet

ps: I developed it using dynamic scripts. So all future improvements will be available without any worry. If you miss something, drop it in the comments and I'm gonna care about...


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