aquamarine
03-06-2009, 04:18 PM
Just wondering how many of us on here are Flickr members. Not so much that I can go and add you as a buddy, rather to help bring in a better Geo-Tagging map-system for Flickr. If you have ever used to Geo-Tag feature, you'll notice that if you zoom in too much in certain areas of your city or area, you'll be getting a big gray series of blocks stating "We're sorry, the data you have requested is unavailable." This is a BIG kick in the ass to folks in England, South America and all across Asia. As it is, if I want to tag a location in Japan, I'll need to 'hover' at about 25km up and then use Google Earth to cross-reference the geographic land-mass to make an even generalized guess at where I'll put the image.
In other words: I'm going to be off target by sometimes up to two kilometers which when tagging city shots, makes a BIG difference.
Here is the post I've put up in the Flickr Discussion group"
After perusing through Flickr for quite a long while, I have discovered that I'm certainly not the only person who lives in Japan. This is unique in a couple of ways. Firstly, those EXPATS can get together and do some photo walks as groups while learning more about a unique culture. The second is that we can make use of the Geo-Tagging feature.... to a point.
I have been able to GeoTag much of my work from back in Canada (even though the country-side map images are poor at best), however I find it to be simply a struggle at best to Geo-Tag my photos from Japan. The reason? If I use the 'Satellite' view, I can only place images from what looks to be about 60km up! Hardly accurate. The other trouble is if I choose to use 'Map' view, it shows only the highways and rudimentary train line names in kanji which is incredibly difficult to read even for those of us who have studied Japanese.
Please Flickr, hear our call... convince Yahoo to supply you with some higher quality maps so that we can accurately Geo-Tag our images while in 'Japanaland'!
and
OK Flickr/Yahoo, please for the love of god, fix your geo-tagging map section please.
Not only does your map system lack detail but my christ, if I drag the map down a quarter inch on the screen, I'm suddenly transported a good fifteen kilometers North, South, East or West when in an area that doesn't have a good detailed map. Even when ONLY using the cartoon/map section, I have this error and it's a pain in the rear-end.
For example: I attempt to geo-tag a series of photos in/around Yokohama/Sakuragicho/Minatomirai Japan and have some major issues that should be looked into. When I am zoomed out at level 6, I drag a quarter inch on the screen and suddenly I'm a good three screens worth of map to one side or the other. What's going on? And no, I am NOT zooming in by mistake, I've made sure of that already. Plus, for the love of God, would the higher-ups in Flickr please do what they must to get higher quality maps for the world? Japan is abysmal at best. Heck, even in the cartoony map version, there's incredibly little detail.
Although the detail is one thing, it's more confusing when a person zooms out/in. Why can I see streets from 25km up (I had to cross-reference this with Google Earth which I've had to routinely use just to make sure I got the general area of a geo-tag in the correct point) yet lose the detail of the street when I zoom in? It goes like this....
25km up: I can see streets
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3340/3331615220_f1007722ea_b.jpg
15km up: I lose detail and now the streets become a beige mass
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3416/3331615478_8013c74444_b.jpg
7.6km up: Nothing
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3632/3331615738_8e281b63ed_b.jpg
2.5km up: Nothing
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3547/3331615976_742c5e7abe_b.jpg
C'mon Flickr... how hard is it to send an intern to a book-store, buy a map-book and then scan in the sections pertaining to Japan? Heck, Yahoo is a big enough company that I'm sure they could simply buy the rights to a pre-made map.
Sooo...... for those of you who do indeed have a Flickr account, I ask that you join the thread, chime in on the subject and with luck (and a few more people asking about this... well, perhaps a few hundred), Yahoo/Flickr will bring in higher quality maps for all of us to use.
Link To The Thread: http://flickr.com/groups/flickrideas/discuss/72157614229014251/
In other words: I'm going to be off target by sometimes up to two kilometers which when tagging city shots, makes a BIG difference.
Here is the post I've put up in the Flickr Discussion group"
After perusing through Flickr for quite a long while, I have discovered that I'm certainly not the only person who lives in Japan. This is unique in a couple of ways. Firstly, those EXPATS can get together and do some photo walks as groups while learning more about a unique culture. The second is that we can make use of the Geo-Tagging feature.... to a point.
I have been able to GeoTag much of my work from back in Canada (even though the country-side map images are poor at best), however I find it to be simply a struggle at best to Geo-Tag my photos from Japan. The reason? If I use the 'Satellite' view, I can only place images from what looks to be about 60km up! Hardly accurate. The other trouble is if I choose to use 'Map' view, it shows only the highways and rudimentary train line names in kanji which is incredibly difficult to read even for those of us who have studied Japanese.
Please Flickr, hear our call... convince Yahoo to supply you with some higher quality maps so that we can accurately Geo-Tag our images while in 'Japanaland'!
and
OK Flickr/Yahoo, please for the love of god, fix your geo-tagging map section please.
Not only does your map system lack detail but my christ, if I drag the map down a quarter inch on the screen, I'm suddenly transported a good fifteen kilometers North, South, East or West when in an area that doesn't have a good detailed map. Even when ONLY using the cartoon/map section, I have this error and it's a pain in the rear-end.
For example: I attempt to geo-tag a series of photos in/around Yokohama/Sakuragicho/Minatomirai Japan and have some major issues that should be looked into. When I am zoomed out at level 6, I drag a quarter inch on the screen and suddenly I'm a good three screens worth of map to one side or the other. What's going on? And no, I am NOT zooming in by mistake, I've made sure of that already. Plus, for the love of God, would the higher-ups in Flickr please do what they must to get higher quality maps for the world? Japan is abysmal at best. Heck, even in the cartoony map version, there's incredibly little detail.
Although the detail is one thing, it's more confusing when a person zooms out/in. Why can I see streets from 25km up (I had to cross-reference this with Google Earth which I've had to routinely use just to make sure I got the general area of a geo-tag in the correct point) yet lose the detail of the street when I zoom in? It goes like this....
25km up: I can see streets
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3340/3331615220_f1007722ea_b.jpg
15km up: I lose detail and now the streets become a beige mass
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3416/3331615478_8013c74444_b.jpg
7.6km up: Nothing
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3632/3331615738_8e281b63ed_b.jpg
2.5km up: Nothing
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3547/3331615976_742c5e7abe_b.jpg
C'mon Flickr... how hard is it to send an intern to a book-store, buy a map-book and then scan in the sections pertaining to Japan? Heck, Yahoo is a big enough company that I'm sure they could simply buy the rights to a pre-made map.
Sooo...... for those of you who do indeed have a Flickr account, I ask that you join the thread, chime in on the subject and with luck (and a few more people asking about this... well, perhaps a few hundred), Yahoo/Flickr will bring in higher quality maps for all of us to use.
Link To The Thread: http://flickr.com/groups/flickrideas/discuss/72157614229014251/