smugMaps
20 Aug 2005At OSCON, Don showed me a demonstration of smugMaps, a new service that he has created to "combine the power of Google Maps with over 32,000,000 smugmug photos." What makes Don's implementation really work is that he has made it easy for those of us without geo data in our photos to add it using the Google Maps interface.
Here are some of the highlights, in Don's own words:
- All smugmug RSS/Atom feeds support geo data, so other apps/services/etc can use this anyway they'd like.
- Google Earth KML is a supported format for all feeds, too, so we can toss photos across the surface of the earth from anywhere on smugmug. Very cool.
- Search for photos by address & various different types of smugmug data. We haven't blended smugmug's full-text search with it, yet, but it's coming. Keyword tags, like del.icio.us, do work, as do others.
- Easy-to-map your photos with interactive Google Maps interface. No need to type Latitude & Longitude directly, and can fine-tune locations on Google Maps.
- Basic documentation and commented Javascript code, since we're encouraging other sites to do fun things with our feeds or mix them with their own data. We'll continue to enhance and expand the docs to make this easier.
- "Timeline" feature actually animates the map through your travel path as you took a group of photos. Perfect for vacations.
Want to make your own Google Maps hack? Check out the Google Maps API. There's also a Google Maps with PHP and MySQL tutorial that looks interesting.
In related news, Don, Adam, Steve, and others are at Foo Camp this weekend. Be sure to keep an eye on their blogs for the latest Foo.