Finding Yourself on Google Maps
A fun way to engage users and take advantage of the unique powers of the mobile web is to create a photo gallery integrated with a Google map that automatically places geolocated photos on a map, to show where they were taken. Consider these examples:
If your website serves a community, such as a travel club, a group of marathon racers, or another group that likes to share photos, the nifty features at Picasa let you, or anyone, easily upload photos from a cellphone and automatically create photo galleries. If the phone model includes geodata (such as the iPhone does; on other models, it depends on the privacy settings), you can add photos to a Google map automatically. Then, when your travel club members are taking photos out their windows on the group’s next road trip, everyone on your site can see the photos in real time and track where club members visit by following the photos across a map.
Geodata is the precise longitude and latitude of your location on the planet, expressed in degrees, minutes, seconds, or radians; the raw numbers look a bit like this 38° 53’ 55.133” N by 77° 02’ 15.691” W. A computer mapping program takes these coordinates and produces a point on a map — in this case, the location of the White House ...
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