I was just e-mailed this by a co-worker (thanks Paul!): the World-Wide Media eXchange. It’s a Microsoft Research project gathering pictures from all over the world and arranging them into a map-driven interface. It’s a really cool way to browse pictures as well as a neat way to find pictures of places you’ve been or may be going. Here’s what the site has to say about itself:
The World-Wide Media eXchange (WWMX) is a centralized index of digital photos, where photos are tagged by the geographic location where they were shot. It’s an experimental research project run by the Interactive Visual Media Group at Microsoft Research.
The project explores possibilities with digital photographs and geographic location. The location where a photo was taken provides clues about its semantic context and offers an intuitive way to index it, even in a very large collection. The combination is powerful, but still not supported well by either the photo-software or camera-hardware industries. We’re trying to establish a strong case for these features, and you can help us — try the downloads, and tell us about your experience: . Your feedback can make a difference!
It’s free and cool, check it out.