Panoramio

Panoramio is a photo-sharing website, the publication of georeferenced photographs ( Geo - Imaging) can be used. It is owned by the U.S. company Google. In addition to publishing on the website are actual photographs that have a geo-tag integrated at irregular intervals in the program Google Earth and other Internet services such as 4UMaps.

History

Panoramio was founded in summer 2005 by the two Spanish entrepreneurs Joaquín Cuenca Abela and Eduardo Aguilar Manchón. The oldest, still available image was published on 29 July 2005. The official launch took place on 3 October 2005.

Approximately one and a half years after the official launch Panoramio gave on 19 March 2007 announced that in the meantime a million photos were uploaded to Panoramio. Only three months later, on 27 June 2007, invited one of the now more than 600,000 registered users high the two millionth photo.

End of May 2007, Google announced the acquisition of Panoramio known.

In October 2007, one million users had uploaded five million images. Meanwhile, the number of highly charged objects increased to over 100 million. However, it is not known how many geo-referenced images are actually available at Panoramio, since many images have been deleted by the user himself or by Panoramio again in the meantime.

Since its acquisition by Google, the georeferenced images next to Google Earth will gradually be used to illustrate another powered by Google online services such as Maps, Search, or street view.

Operation

Accepted media

Panoramio indicates that only photos of each user are accepted, and includes in its terms of use, all images that are not real photos, of the acceptance of. In addition to such photos are not accepted, the

• Taken by persons other than the user
• Included advertising in the image or title
• Sexually explicit, discriminatory, xenophobic or racist are

The uploaded photos must not be larger than 25 megabytes. An acceptance of Panoramio does not automatically lead to a takeover in the associated geographic information systems. With the help of a monthly contest and prizes, the operator is trying to promote the uploading of high-quality photographs, this was abandoned in August 2013.

Groups

Since the end of 2011 it is possible to assign individual photos of one or more groups. This is to organizations of all interests, photographic techniques, or even regions or countries. Photographers use this function like in order to help their new photos quickly to many clicks.

Georeferencing and geographic information systems

Georeferencing can be done either manually by the user or by uploading pre- geocoded images. To manually georeferencing maps is the parent company are available; alternatively known coordinates can be entered if one has already. Panoramio recommends to encode the location of the photographer and not the location of the subject of the photo. The provider grants users the possibility to suggest changes in position for misplaced images. This can be done only once during the life cycle of an image currently however. Meanwhile, the system recognizes sometimes by itself misplacement and automatically suggests a suitable position before, which only needs to be confirmed by the user.

Panoramio indicates to check the uploaded images and only show pictures, places, landscapes, etc. to pass on Google's geo-information systems. Images representing primarily people, cars, indoor or macro shots, should not be included in the geographic information systems; however, they may remain on the personal page of the user. After reviewing the images are labeled accordingly (eg This photo has been selected for Google Earth )

Only photos that are provided with spatial data, can be selected for Google Maps, Google Earth or Look Around.

Other Features

In addition to the geo-information and other metadata of the images are visible (eg EXIF data ). Uploaded images can be sorted with the help of keywords ( tags). More sorting options looks Panoramio currently not available.

Map sections in addition to the individual images offer the opportunity to find images in the vicinity of the original recording. For frequently photographed places there is a function available with which you can view pictures from different angles or locations ( look around ).

A more recent development is the possibility of direct upload of images via so-called camera phones by the website operator. , With this service, and this app has been reinstated.

Licenses and access control

Panoramio indicates that the images remain the property of the photographer, and provides its users with different licenses to choose from ( all rights reserved or staggered releases for non-commercial and commercial use).

In those applicable to Germany Terms and Conditions, Google admits only " the necessary, non-exclusive and worldwide basis, in perpetuity rights to use such content solely for the purpose of the provision of the relevant service and only to the extent it necessary. " These rights end with the time in which the user removes an image from Panoramio. Other German -language Terms vacate Google contrast, a much more far-reaching and irrevocable rights to the images.

Forum

Panoramio provides users with a forum in different languages ​​available. There, users can share, particularly new users find for emerging issues here a focal point. In the English- board user can present their images to theme divided other forum members. Read access to the forum is free for everyone to gain write permission, registration is required. Numerous presenters pay attention to compliance with the forum rules.