Panoramio

Infobox Website
name = Panoramio
favicon =



caption = Photos of the World
url = http://www.panoramio.com/
commercial = Yes
type = Photo sharing
registration = Free
owner = Google
language = multilingual
author = Joaquín Cuenca Abela, co-founder
Eduardo Manchón Aguilar co-founder
Jose Florido partner
launch date = October 3 2005
current status = Active
revenue =

Panoramio is a geolocation-oriented photo sharing website. Currently, some of the photos uploaded to the site can be accessed as a layer in Google Earth and Google Maps, with new photos being added at the end of every month. The site's goal is to allow Google Earth users to learn more about a given area by viewing the photos that other users have taken at that place. The website is available in several languages.

History

Panoramio was started in the summer of 2005 by Joaquín Cuenca Abela and Eduardo Manchón Aguilar, two Spanish entrepreneurs. It was officially launched on October 3 2005, and by March 19 2007, it had archived over 1 million user submitted photographs. [cite web | url = http://www.panoramio.com/blog/1-million-geolocated-photos-at-panoramio/ | title = One million geolocated photos at Panoramio | accessdate = 2007-08-10 | first = Eduardo | last = Manchón | date= 2007-03-19 | work = Panoramio's Blog | publisher = Panoramio] Three months later, on June 27, 2007, the number of photos reached two million. [cite web | url = http://www.panoramio.com/blog/2-million-photos-in-panoramio/ | title = 2 million photos in Panoramio | accessdate = 2007-08-10 | first = Eduardo | last = Manchón | date= 2007-06-07 | work = Panoramio's Blog | publisher = Panoramio] After a further four months, on October 25, 2007, the number of archived photos reached five million. [cite web | url = http://www.panoramio.com/blog/1-million-registered-users-and-5-million-photos-uploaded/ | title = 1 million registered users and 5 million photos uploaded | accessdate = 2007-10-28 | first = Eduardo | last = Manchón | date= 2007-10-25 | work = Panoramio's Blog | publisher = Panoramio]

On May 30 2007, Google announced plans to acquire the website, [cite web | url = http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/05/pictures-worth-thousand-clicks.html | title = A picture's worth a thousand clicks | accessdate = 2007-08-10 | first = John | last = Hanke | date= 2007-05-30 | work = The Official Google Blog | publisher = Google] and Panoramio was acquired by Google on July 2007. [cite web | url = http://www.panoramio.com/team/ | accessdate = 2008-06-01 | title = The Official Website of Panoramio]

Google Maps API has recently been used by some other websites like [http://www.everytrail.com Everytrail.com] and [http://www.globalmotion.com Globalmotion.com] to allow users upload and geotag their photos and by [http://www.mapyro.com Mapyro.com] to allow users upload and geotag travel videos.

Features

Organization

Panoramio asks users to organize images using tags (a form of metadata), which allow searchers to find images concerning a certain topic such as place name or subject matter. Panoramio was also an early website to implement tag clouds, which provide access to images tagged with the most popular keywords. The website also hosts a list of world famous sites.

Interaction and compatibility

Licensing

Controversy

pam

At the end of May 2008 Panoramio was victim of a massive spam attack: in comments users were thanked for posting a superb photo and then promised free ringtones, a free vacation etc.

Code of Conduct

Panoramio is currently lacking a Code of Conduct, leading to abusive behaviour in the comments of certain photos.

References

External links

* [http://www.panoramio.com/ Official website]
* [http://earth.google.com/ Google Earth]
* [http://lifehacker.com/software/google-earth/google-earth-adds-wikipedia-panoramio-layers-220743.php/ Google Earth adds Wikipedia, Panoramio layers]