Geotagged media

Well, the association of resources with geocoordinates, also known as geotagging, is not new, but one of the reason for me to write about Panoramio, a picture-sharing platform where photos are associated with locations, is its recent announcement of being taken over by Google (after already having closely cooperated). While Google does not yet reveal how this service will be integrated, it makes a lot of sense also from a user perspective to make Google Maps a more personalized experience. Looking at the world in hybrid mode (satellite pictures) is nice, but they're not up to date. And considering the effort that Google is taking in photographing the world (well, at least some cities, as it seems), why not take advantage of the Google community taking digital pictures and uploading them for other users to look at?

Of course it's all about gathering user-related information, and I assume that it will remain one of Google best-kept secrets of what they will actually do with all this data. Having Google Mail, Google Documents and now something that might be called Google Media, user context (time, location, interest) becomes as enriched as you could possibly think of. But hey, you are not forced to use any of these services, right?

Anyway, if pictures can be geo-tagged, any other kind of resource will also do. Videos, mash-ups, "office" documents, newspaper articles, podcasts, blogs - anything that may exist in digital form. And if you think mobile, you may get all these geo-tagged resources while walking by some marked location, or instantly leave your own photographs or videos right after shooting them.

Oh, I forgot about Orkut. This may be the foundation to share digital resources among persons you directly relate to, as an alternative to writing your friends a postcard or SMS from your vacation.

I am sure this is only the tip of the iceberg - many more possible scenarios I have not been thinking of yet ...