Back at Where 2.0 2007, Google CTO Michael Jones announced that they had acquired Panoramio, the popular photo hosting company. At the time, there were roughly two million photos in their database. By the following spring it had risen to 4.5 million photos, and is now well over 20 million!
Sadly, co-founder Eduardo Manchón has just announced that he is leaving Google and heading onward to new projects. In particular, he mentions Askaro, a way to ask questions about a particular geographic area (neighborhoods, etc). He will be replaced on the Panoramio team by Gerard Sanz.
However, it’s not all bad news. As TechCrunch points out, many Google acquisitions end very poorly, with the acquired company pretty much dying (Dodgeball, Jaiku, etc), but that certainly wasn’t the case here. Panoramio is not only a major part of Google Earth, but is also featured in Google Maps and StreetView. It continues to grow in popularity, and seems likely to continue to thrive.
We certainly wish him well with his new ventures! Given the geographic nature of his new site, I’m sure we’ll be writing about him again in the future.
About Mickey Mellen
Mickey has been using Google Earth since it was released in 2005, and has created a variety of geo-related sites including Google Earth Hacks. He runs a web design firm in Marietta, GA, where he lives with his wife and two kids.
What does it mean? Will Panoramio´s Pictures dissapear in Google Earth?
Leonardo — No worries. The pictures will stay in GE and things will keep moving forward. It will result in no major changes to their service.
Right, it took some time, but the integration with Google went very well after the acquisition, so just expect improvements of the service during the next months and better integration with other Google services.
Thanks for the good wishes Mickey 😉
Saludos
Edu