Panoramio's Blog

Since some minutes ago you can submit your photos uploaded in April to the Panoramio contest. Those photos will have the link “submit to the contest” and can be voted in when they will get the “vote” button.

You can vote for the photos uploaded in March until the end of April. Now photos in the gallery of participants are displayed randomly so you get fresh photos all the time. The winners of photos uploaded in March will be known on May 15th.

We want to celebrate the 5 million shared photos in Panoramio in Google Earth with a Panoramio meeting in Barcelona. In some weeks we will have meetings in London and Paris. The information about the meeting in Barcelona below in Spanish language.

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Queremos celebrar los 5 millones de fotos compartidas en Panoramio en Google Earth con el primer encuentro Panoramio el próximo 8 de Mayo en Barcelona.

El lugar escogido para conocer a otros usuarios de Panoramio y a su equipo fundador es el bar Mirablau que hemos reservado para la ocasión. Allí además de disfrutar de las vistas de Barcelona desde las alturas del Tibidabo, habrá picoteo y bebidas, así como alguna pequeña sorpresita.

Fecha y hora: 8 de mayo de 2008 de 18:30 a 20:00

Lugar: Bar Mirablau, C/ Manuel Amús, 2 (final Avenida Tibidabo), Barcelona

El aforo del lugar esta limitado a 60 personas, así que os agradeceríamos que os registraseis en este formulario. Y por supuesto, ¡no olvideis vuestras cámaras!.

Más información en la página del primer encuentro Panoramio en Barcelona.

On Monday April 7th Google Earth updated the Panoramio layer adding around 300,000 new photos, that was earlier than we expected (April 12th).

Selected images up to ID 8,620,000 are now in Google Earth. The next update will be online on May 25th and will include photos reviewed until May 5th.

Today we have launched the geotagging monthly contest in Panoramio sponsored by ATP.

Rules:

- To participate simply use the link “Submit to the contest” located under each photo and choose one category.
- Users can submit as many photos as they want, but there is only one prize per person.
- One photo can participate in only one category and get only one prize.
- Only geolocated photos in Panoramio will be included.
- Updated: Only photos uploaded during the monthly contest previous month can be submited, for example, only photos uploaded in April March, can participate in the April contest.

Prizes:

- Winner: 1 ATP Photofinder + 1 1 ATP ProMaxII UDMA-ready CF (4GB) or 1 ATP ProMax SDHC Class 6 (4GB) for the winner of each category.
- Runner up: 1 ATP Photofinder + 1 ATP Petito USB drive 512MB for the runner-up of each category.
- Honorable mentions: 1 ATP Petito USB drive 512MB for honorable mentions (5 in each category).

There will be 28 new winners each month. In the contest page you can see more details about the contest and the prices.

Today Google Earth updated the Panoramio layer adding around 600,000 new photos. Selected images up to ID 7,980,000 are now in Google Earth. The next update is on April 12th and will include photos reviewed until March 26th.

Yesterday we moved to a new server and the site was not working for a couple of hours. Also during the day some uploaded photos and comments were delayed. Now those problems are fixed. I am sorry to say that the tag’s page is still disabled and it will take around 1 month to be back. We could just switch on the tag’s page again, but this will make the whole site very slow.

The good news are that we are almost done with a couple of new features:

- Change of copyright licenses: You will be able to choose the type of copyright license you prefer for your photos, standard copyright or any license from Creative Commons. You will be able to change the license for all your photos by once or select the license for single photos.

- Original file access: You will be able to restrict the access to the original file in case you don’t want other users to get it. Only the author of the photo will be able to access the original file.

These 2 features have been very much requested and they will be online shortly.

We just released a new header for Panoramio:

Now you can explore the World and find any place in our planet from every page in Panoramio.com. The access to “Your photos”, Places and Tags are more visible with the new design. Also the link to the settings is more accessible.

Today we made some improvements in the search enginge of Panoramio’s homepage and the World Map. Now you can search for:

- Streets in some countries: “Third Avenue, New York“, “Ramblas, Barcelona“.

- Landmarks: “Eiffel Tower“, “Mount Fuji” or “Cape of Good Hope”

- Names in different languages: Saragossa/Zaragoza, Nueva York/New York, Köln/Cologne, Leipzig/Lipsia…

- More flexible inputs: Add the province/state/country to the name of the location to quickly find places with common names: “Cox, Spain“, “Cox, California” or “Cox, England“.

Saving Private Ryan maybe is the most realistic film ever made about the landing of the Allied forces in German-occupied France on June 6th 1944, but with so many explosions and fast camera movements you can’t really see the place at the film. This mini-panoramio can help you with that:

Around Omaha you can discover several never ending cemeteries and take a look at the strategically located Pointe D’Hoc where fierce fights took place.

You might have seen on TV see images of the sarcophagus that covers the reactor number 4 from Chernobyl Nuclear Plant that exploded in the accident, but this mini-panoramio gives you a wider perspective:

Actually there is not very much to see around the plant, but what is really amazing is taking a virtual walk in the abandoned city of Prypiat. This city was very close to Chernobyl and its 50.000 inhabitants had to be completely evacuated after the accident. I never have seen such a green city, after 18 years trees grew everywhere:

Residents from Prypiat were only allowed to take away a suitcase full of documents, books and clothes that were not contaminated. Apartment buildings, swimming pools, hospitals and other buildings were all abandoned, and everything inside the buildings was left behind, including records, papers, TVs, children’s toys, furniture, valuables, and clothing, etc. that any normal family would have with them. Practically the city is a museum documenting the late Soviet era.

The Exclusion Zone is considered relatively safe to visit, and several Ukrainian companies offer guided tours of the area. Prypiat and the surrounding area will not be safe for human habitation for several centuries to come. It will take 300 years for the most deadly radioactive isotopes released by the accident to decay. After that the area may be used for most human activities again. High radiation has not prevented wildlife from entering the area; wild animal populations are actually quite large in the exclusion zone, capitalizing on the lack of human occupation.

Source: Wikipedia

I never expected such a resolution for a relatively unkown place as Forte São João Baptista in Ibo island in Mozambique:

But I was even more surprised after discovering that my friend eSHa took a photo right there.

It feels almost like touching these guns with the hands.