Have Fun Mapping Your Photos with Panoramio

This is fun!

Panoramio sign up is a breeze. Enter your email address, a user name and a password and you'll be directed to the photo upload page. Make note here of your personal URL, so you can send it to people you want to share your photos with. Press Upload your photos and you're ready to go.

Once you've uploaded your photo or photos, you can title them and map them. Photos that have EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format) coordinates are automatically mapped. Press Map this photo and enter a city or place. Panoramio opens an aerial view of the place you entered. Drag a marker around or click on the map to give the exact location. Press Save position and you're returned to the photo download page.

Mapping can be done any time, and the position of your photo on the map can be changed if you put the wrong photo in the wrong place.

When you're done uploading photos, mapping and titling them, press the Finish button. Panoramio returns you to your personal web page. Click on one of your photos -- you'll see your photo with its Google location map to the side. You'll also be able to see other photos of that location that have been uploaded and mapped by other users.

Hover over your Panoramio photo and a balloon with the title of your photo appears. There's a comments box on this page, the option to send the photo to a friend and the option to view the photo in Google Earth. (If you don't have Google Earth, click here to download and install it.)

Across the top of your screen are your basic options for working with Panoramio. Your Photos takes you to your home page. Upload takes you to the upload page. Places shows random images and maps that other users have uploaded. Tags lets you search other users' uploads by tag. You can tag your own photos on your home page.

A little bit of fine print

If you decide you don't want a particular photo on your page any more, click on it, then look for the trash can icon under it when it opens on the page with the map. There is no private album option at Panoramio -- make sure that the photos you upload are ones you're willing to share with the world.

Check your Settings page to change your password, set your email alerts and add a paragraph of personal information. A nice feature of Panoramio is the ability to set your copyright preferences. Reserve all rights to yourself, or allow some use of your photographs by others.

Panoramio is fast, fun and intuitive.