By Gonzo
A tag is a type of metadata (that is, “data about data”) that helps computers understand data so they can better sort and search it. Metadata may not be very fun or sexy, but it has the power to change the way we perceive and interact with our world, a world that is increasingly becoming digitally networked through social computing technologies like tagging.
For instance: If you look at a picture of a duck your brain concludes it’s a duck based on your pre-existing conception of what a duck is. But for computers, it’s not so simple. Computerized archetype recognition is not nearly advanced enough for a computer to reliably deduce that the picture is of a duck. So to get around that limitation, programmers use tags (also called keywords). Sites like Flickr encourage you to add tags to your photos so that they can more easily search through them.
But tags aren’t limited to broad words like “duck”. You can also add some extremely specific information, like the date, time and exact location at which the picture was taken (using GPS technology to ascertain the coordinates).
That may seem like a waste of time until you see what the big brains at Google can do with that metadata. Google Maps now has a feature that enables you to turn on Wikipedia and photo links that are placed on the map according to their GPS location.
You can turn one or both off by clicking on the “More” button. The Wikipedia entries are for cities, landmarks, attractions and the like; any page that has a location associated with it. The photos come by way of Panoramio, not Flickr. Panoramio is a recent Google acquisition with a focus on location tagging.
It’s pretty geeky to tag the GPS location of your photos, but how long do you think it will be before it’s a standard feature on cameras, especially camera phones that already have built-in GPS? Really, it could come in handy, especially if you’re looking for somewhere beautiful to walk; just look for a tight cluster of pretty photos and go there. You can be your own tour guide with a Google Maps-enabled mobile phone just by checking out what Wikipedia has to say about a nearby landmark.
Isn’t it nice when technology gets us outside for a change?
Links:
Google map view
http://www.panoramio.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metadata