Comments
6 CommentsEarlier today I read a blog post on bioneural.net (a 9ruler) about defining a standard geotag icon for the web in the same style as those feed icons you see everywhere these days.
It's fascinating, and the tutorial part of it is really well written and clear. So much so I have followed it on my blog and historically tagged a bunch of posts so that I now have a map showing blog posts.
You can read my post on the matter or dive straight in to the map if you so wish.
I'm quite in to all this kind of thing. I've been geotagging my photos for quite some time, and I have thought about this a few times in the past, but I never thought it was doable without a lot of hassle.
So, how long before I can subscribe to a feed that shows me any blog post about the contents of a 5 mile square in the middle of nowhere between Sheffield and Manchester? ;)
I'd be interested to see if anyone else has done this, or plans to.
JoeLencioni
Written Feb. 24, 2008 / Report /
I've started to geotag some of my posts. The plugin is pretty good, but I still wish it were a little easier. I haven't done anything with the icon yet, but will probably incorporate it eventually. It's a good idea.
I believe that outside.in aggregates geotagged blog posts, but I don't think they cover the UK. Anyway, this sort of thing seems to be on the horizon.
Nils
Written Feb. 24, 2008 / Report /
I suppose this is great for people who post on the go a lot. When you're at an event, on a trip, on the train, a geotag might have some meaning. But don't most people still just post from home (or work, *cough*)? There, a geotag, I think, adds little value.
Oh, well, as soon as it becomes readily available and hassle-free, I'll probably just jump the bandwagon straightaway as well.
JoeLencioni
Written Feb. 24, 2008 / Report /
@Nils, I think that geotagging may be more for posts that are about a certain location, not necessarily posted from a certain location. At least that's how I'm using it--I'm tagging posts of photos with the locations they were taken.
Nils
Written Feb. 24, 2008 / Report /
Okay, now that would make sense.
I wonder how I'd geotag a post about web 2.0 though. Anyone know where that is exactly?
;)
JoeLencioni
Written Feb. 24, 2008 / Report /
I think it's somewhere in Narnia
bioneural
Written Feb. 24, 2008 / Report /
Agree with Joe; I tag the location I'm referring to, rather than where I'm posting from. Hell, I didn't even think of doing the latter. Nils, "Web 2.0" is located on Planet Cyberspace; you know GPS coordinates only apply to Planet Earth, right? ;-)
I like the way the Geo Mashup plugin lets you display posts on the map by category; it's sort of like a "physical tag cloud". Say someone reads your travel post on New Zealand, and they want to see if there are any more relating to a particular region of NZ they're interested in visiting. Well, by passing the data in the URL to your map you can "zoom in" on a particular country or region, and at the same time a particular category (travel articles, as opposed to short stories involving sheep, for example). Much more visual than having them troll thru your category archive list. I think this is pretty cool. Try out the key below my map which lets you change focus with a click.