The Global Photo Database (GPDB) would really work if camera makers started building GPS receivers into cameras, but it can be done now if people enter the metadata.
The idea is something like Expedia or Mappoint or Google Maps. The difference is that the world's pictures are indexed to the map at the time/date they were taken. Lets say you took some pictures at Niagara Falls on a certain day/time. You upload your photos to the GPDB, the metadata is collected and indexed and added to the database of photographs.
Now on the web you can look up a map of Niagara Falls then select the day/time you were there, and little triangular icons show where photos were taken. You could easily find other pictures of yourself if any were taken from different angles, and so could other people who happened to be there at the same time/date.
Photos that were not taken at the exact moment are shown, but are of increasing transparency the farther in the future or the past that they are. Click on the picture icon (a small wedge indicating the picture angle perhaps), and you see the picture that was taken.
A slider (or some other control) allows you to expand the time range, so that picture icons are visible from a just a minute, to over a great range of time.
You could go over all the trips in your life and see if anyone took any pictures of you or of the places you were in that are better than the ones you took.-- trekbody, Feb 22 2005 embedded metadata in pictures embedded_20metadata_20in_20pictures [hippo, Feb 23 2005] timeAndPlaceSite timeAndPlaceSite [hippo, Feb 23 2005] previous idea Enhanced_20Vacation_20photosthere are a few others too... [sophocles, Feb 25 2005] flickr rocks http://www.flicr.comphotos with geo data are supported [neilp, Apr 11 2005] You would select the exact place/time. There would be no ambiguity. The problem with Google images (and it is really useful) is that it relies on surrounding text and the photo name for results. This would rely on the metadata more.-- trekbody, Feb 23 2005 Looks like timeandPlaceSite beat me too it though.-- trekbody, Feb 23 2005 Yup.-- krelnik, Feb 23 2005 BrauBeaton: Huh? Did you read this at all?-- gootyam, Feb 23 2005 Of course, for some photo's the user may wish to turn the GPS system off. Nod, nod, wink, wink, say no more.-- Ling, Feb 24 2005 No fighting boys! BrauBeaton is right, but focusing on his particular needs. BB- this would not meet your need for pictures through a simple search (although it could), but would help with a more defined search. For example. I have looked for a few years for pictures of a restaurant I was in with my wife in Fussen, Germany (by castle Neuschwanstein). I have an idea where it was, so I could search by pictures from an exact location. Trying to do that from Google has proved fruitless. I agree with the KISS principle, and think it is simple, as much so as finding a location in Expedia. Location + time equals desired pictures. It is different than Google pictures, not a replacement.-- trekbody, Feb 24 2005 BrauBeaton: Sorry.-- gootyam, Feb 25 2005 How about a device to automatically find the photos that Ward Churchill's serigraphs were copied from?-- supercat, Feb 25 2005 Excellent etiquette from both of you in the end. Thanks for commenting on my idea.-- trekbody, Mar 01 2005 random, halfbakery