Hacking Google Maps and Google Earth (ExtremeTech)

Merging with

Flickr Photos

F

lickr has become something of a phenomenon. At its heart, Flickr is a

service for uploading and sharing your photos, but one of the key ele-

ments of Flickr is that photos can be shared with the public, specific

friends, or just kept secret.

The other aspect of Flickr photos is that individual photos can be “tagged”:

given a special keyword that can be used for searching and organizing your

photos. Because photos are shared among users, you can search for photos

with the same keywords as your own or simply browse Flickr photos for the

content you are looking for.

The tagging system can also be adapted so that you can tag your photos

with information about the latitude and longitude where the photo was

taken. By using this information and a Google Map, you can build a view of

Flickr photos according to their location. This chapter covers the basics of

the Flickr API, which lets you extract Flickr photos and information and

combine that with a Google Map.

Flickr and the Flickr API

There are three key elements to using Flickr and the Flickr API with

Google Maps. The first is that you must upload your photos to Flickr,

which requires a Flickr account. You also need a Flickr API key to access

the Flickr database, whether that is for your own photos or other people’s.

The third key element is the use of tags to identify the content of the pho-

tos. Tags are freeform and can be any valid text string. You have can have

multiple tags, and the tags become a method for searching and locating

photos (as well as using other well-known constructs such as albums). Tags

on Flickr photos can be used to extract photos with geographical tags and

then plot the locations of the photos onto a Google Map.

The Flickr API

The Flickr API provides access to Flickr photos. A variety of different

search and access methods exist to get the information stored in the Flickr

database according to the information you are looking for.

̨Use the Flickr API

̨Add geodata to

your Flickr photos

̨Embed Flickr photos

into a Google Map

chapter

in this chapter