The Next Step in Geotagging Blog Posts
February 25, 2008 | By Anne Helmond | Filed Under Blogging, Features, Guides and Tutorials
Bruce from bioneural.net is taking geotagging blog posts to the next level by developing a web standard icon. Geotagging is the act of adding geographical metadata to a piece of content such as a blog post.
The first important step in geotagging blog posts was made by cyberhobo who developed a plugin for WordPress that makes it very easy to annotate your blog posts and automatically puts them on a Google Map.
This is what a map with geotagged blog posts could look like:
A more customized example of a geotagged blog map can be found on Shifting Pixels.
In this way blog posts could be location based but especially location aware, or as JoeLencioni puts it:
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.
Plugins make it easier to geotag your posts and show them on a map. On top of that, the development of a specific geotag icon will very likely further develop the geoblogging trend by providing a clear and distinguishable icon. The icon and geotag information may be added to the end of the blog post:
Geotagged at 53.07509122405637, -0.8168667554855347 (View on map) - example from geoblogger publicenergy
The icon is still under construction and being made with the help and input from other geobloggers. The first draft resembles a brown pin in which the brown refers to the earth and the pin to the old habit of pinning down points on maps. The icon is designed to fit in with existing and established web icons. From left to right the proposed Geotag icon, the established Feed icon, the OPML icon, and the Share icon.
You can follow the development of the icon at Bruce’s blog and leave feedback or participate in the comments. Will the new standard icon further popularize the geotagging of blog posts?
About the author: Anne is a New Media Lecturer at the University of Amsterdam. She participates as a blog researcher in the newly found Digital Methods Initiative of the University of Amsterdam. Anne also writes about blogging and academics on her personal blog and the collaborative Masters of Media blog.
Comments
3 Responses to “The Next Step in Geotagging Blog Posts”
Leave a Reply
Sponsors
News
Ghost Bloggers Growing in Popularity?July 18, 2008 | By Andrew G.R. | 2 Comments
Toronto’s Globe and Mail is asking the question that’s on everybody’s mind (sarcasm): Does rapper Kanye West have a “ghost blogger?”
While the concept of ghost writing is hardly new (celebs have been relying on professional writers to create content that is officially credited to them forever), it looks like ghost blogging is blipping onto [...]
PodPress Update in 10 Days
July 18, 2008 | By Thord Daniel Hedengren | 1 Comment
PodPress is probably the most used podcasting plugin for WordPress, and the one we’ve been using here at The Blog Herald. However, there have been issues with it since WordPress 2.5, and it doesn’t work with recently released 2.6. Among others that are frustrated are David Peralty, who’s written about the issue.
Luckily, the PodPress developer [...]
Twitter Outage Used to do Upgrades, New Design Being Tested
July 18, 2008 | By Thord Daniel Hedengren | Leave a Comment
Twitter experienced an unplanned outage, and is down and out for maintenance. They are using this outage to upgrade the affected database, according to a blog post. The service is still down, but hopefully we’ll be getting our microblogging cravings satisfied soon.
Speaking of Twitter, they have apparently tested a new design on select users. SheGeeks [...]
Unannounced Blogging Hiatus
July 17, 2008 | By Andrew G.R. | Leave a Comment
I’m back after a three-week bout of NoBloggingitis (be careful, it might be contagious). I never intended not to blog. Simply put, life just got in the way. The big event in my life was selling my place and moving into a new one. While I expected it to be stressful, [...]
Female Bloggers Want Out of Playboy Poll
July 17, 2008 | By Thord Daniel Hedengren | 3 Comments
Veronica Belmont and Sarah Austin wants out of the sexiest female bloggers poll on Playboy, according to a story on TechCrunch, but Playboy says no. It would, of course disrupt the poll. While I have no love for these kind of polls, and the Playboy one is no exception, I do think that if you’ve [...]
Pownce App Updates
July 17, 2008 | By Thord Daniel Hedengren | 1 Comment
Microblogging service Pownce have updated their Pownce Desktop app to 2.0, which means you’ll get embedded media, notification alerts, friend management, and more. Pownce Desktop 2.0 is in alpha, and free to download.
The Pownce developers have also made an iPhone and iPod touch version available from the iTunes App store. Free, of course.
Patrons
Sponsored Links
Recent listings from Blogger Jobs
Business Bloggers WantedWe got this from Business Man World: We are looking for bloggers to write about business on a bloggers community. It is not necessary to have previ [...]
A Trio of Blogging Opportunities
This batch is courtesy of our sister site, Performancing.com: Retro Gaming bloggers needed! — “We need bloggers who are passionate abou [...]
Today.com is Hiring Bloggers Daily
Today.com is hiring bloggers daily!! Join the fastest growing blog network in the world If you like to write and would like to make money part time, [...]
Blogging Jobs at MechaWorks
We got this through email from MechaWorks: MechaWorks is a new blogging start-up and we’re offering several new blogging positions. So, if you [...]
Weekly Bloggers for Hire 45
Want your profile here? Read this earlier post for more info. Remember: please follow the instructions there. One-liners will be ignored and have be [...]
More at Blogger Jobs
Contributors
- Andrew G. Rosen
- Andy Merrett
- Anne Helmond
- Arvind Satyanarayan
- Chris Garrett
- Darnell Clayton
- David Krug
- David Peralty
- J. Angelo Racoma
- Jason Kaneshiro
- Jonathan Bailey
- Lorelle VanFossen
- Matt Craven
- Thord Hedengren
- Valeria Maltoni
Our Blog Metrics
Recommended
This is one of the many reasons we have to cherish the fabulous WordPress (plugin) developers.
I know WP s fabulous. I also learned about another WordPress geo plugin recently: PostMapper Blog Post Map and API at postmapper.com. I have no cause yet to use either plugin but almost one to find a reason just to play with it!!
The proposal has moved forward to become a new community-designed icon. Check it out, together with usage guidelines and examples, at geotagicons.com