Panoramio Approaches 1 Million Photos in Google Earth

In December, Google added the Geographic Web layer which contains three sub-layers:

• Best of Google Earth Community – a sample of some of the best placemarks around the world
• Panoramio – geotagged photos from the free photo service Panoramio
• WikiPedia – placemarks of notable places written about in the Wikipedia which have been georeferenced.

There was an update on Monday to the layers and I suspect all of these layers have had many additions (I’m waiting for confirmation from Google on what was updated). Eduardo Manchón of Panoramio has blogged that they delivered nearly one million photos for the layer update on Monday. He says most of those made it into the update. This is really significant for two reasons: 1) there is a very fast growing collection of world-wide photo perspectives being made readily available through Google Earth; and 2) Panoramio is growing at an amazing pace since being added to the layer! When the layer was first added there were only 80,000 photos in December. Now, just 4 months later, nearly a million. Imagine where it will be by the end of the summer…
So, if you are browsing the world and need more information about interesting places, I highly recommend turning on the Geographic Web layer. The Panoramio photos in particular are particularly useful for letting you get a perspective on what people have seen in the area you are viewing. I’m looking forward to planning my next trip and using this as a way to make sure I see the best things.

About Frank Taylor

Frank Taylor started the Google Earth Blog in July, 2005 shortly after Google Earth was first released. He has worked with 3D computer graphics and VR for many years and was very impressed with this exciting product. Frank completed a 5.5 year circumnavigation of the earth by sailboat in June 2015 which you can read about at Tahina Expedition, and is a licensed pilot, backpacker, diver, and photographer.

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