Inspired by / corrolary of : previous HB idea (linked below). But doable with today's technology (no magic).

Many many folks upload photos to http://ophoto, snapfish, or other websites. When doing so, they could be presented with a checkbox to "make these public" (off by default). Make it easy, while they're uploading them for their fam/friends, but still default the choice to "private".

Allow them to enter meta-data on the photos (location, date/time).

Then, when you get back from your vacation in XYZ, you goto the site, and can search for other photos of the area on those days you were there. Missed that rainbow? Street juggler? Too embarassed to take a photo of fabulous random thing? Even wanting to go back there, and looking for ideas of neat things to see & do? Someone else took those photos and you can view & copy them.

Further enhancements: Some of this metadata could be stored in the JPG file, and if it catches on, you could develop cameras that could embed GPS coordinates into the meta data.

Also: Allow anyone to rate your photos on a few scales (originality=2, image quality=4,funny=0,etc) so that when the database gets big, you can filter out the best ones.

Business Model: The site could easily be funded by relevant advertisements for things in those locations / seasons.
-- sophocles, Jul 16 2004

(??) The original HB idea http://www.halfbake...20vacation_20photos
"You in Somebody Else's Vacation Photos" [sophocles, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 17 2004]

BBC News Story http://news.bbc.co....hnology/5235724.stm
Almost baked [hippo, Aug 02 2006]

PhotoSynth http://labs.live.com/photosynth/
[hippo, Jun 19 2007]

Camera GPS unit http://www.camerato....cfm/hurl/id%7C3758
For filling in the EXIF co-ord data [neutrinos_shadow, Jun 19 2007]

A definite [+] idea Wonders if gps data could also be entered so that pics of the same area could be sorted together
-- tasman, Jul 16 2004


This is a super idea. +

EXIF already has a provision for GPS coords. There just needs to be more cameras equipped with GPS receivers at a price low enough that the average vacationer can afford one. I know they are starting to show up in cell phones.
-- bristolz, Jul 17 2004


Astonishingly, this idea could be becoming reality, but in a bigger and cleverer way - see the linked BBC news story.
-- hippo, Aug 02 2006


Link added to PhotoSynth (This was the first idea I went to when looking for a good place to put a link to PhotoSynth - I'd forgotten about the BBC News Story to PhotoSynth I linked last year)
-- hippo, Jun 19 2007



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