As stodgy as it may seem, the use purposes for Geotagging images are actually quite interesting. There are many benefits to doing so, and they definitely go beyond just the "Oh, I was there" factor.

Not long ago were the days in photographic adventure where the photographer would return home, view the images he/she took and think to themself - where exactly was this? Or, "The image would have looked much better had I done this..." - and later go out to a specific area only to find that A) They're lost, or B) they just can't seem to find the exact spot they were when they shot the first image.

Geotagging is a steadily growing process of putting the latitude and longitude coordinates into the EXIF data of an image file. EXIF data is where all the information about a picture was take - ISO, shutterspeed, aperture, time it was taken, etc... With the ability to now put the location data in the file as well, photographers and art appreciators alike can view the location on a map. Benefits of these maps being digital is that they can be marked, drawn on, or, cut up - and all you have to do is Ctrl+Z (Command+Z if you're on a Mac) and it's all back to normal. I digress...

Even in more recent years, the Geotagging process has become more streamlined than ever before. Nikon recently released a point and shoot camera where it automatically geotagged the images - i.e. , the camera has a GPS unit built in. Upload to your favourite web-hosting site, and view the map. Simple. Flickr's got an awesome setup - more about that later though.

I came across this neat little gadget that tracks a path of where I've been, and what time I was there. The Sony GPS-CS3 is a device that was made just for this sort of task - geotagging. Simply turn the device on, and take it with you wherever you go shooting. You have to sync your camera's clock to the second with the Sony device for it to work properly - but when you do, it's quite a super unit.

As for how websites are using it these days, let's have a look at Flickr, for example. As we all know, Flickr is a tool (Yes, a tool) used for storing, sharing, and organizing all of your photos. One of the features they added not too long ago was the World Map, where people could pan around, and try to remember where they took a particular shot, and tag it manually. It was the first of it's kind, if I'm not mistaken. Panoramio is a similar service, but is almost exclusively oriented towards the GPS features, none of the social networking of Flickr. But what makes this so much more interesting is that these GPS devices, the image geotaggers, that people are starting to carry around with them these days, are doing the searching, and remembering where we took the shot for us.

Sure, it may seem like kind of an odd thing to rant about, but when you consider the technology we had not even twenty years ago, it's nice to really compare, and appreciate what we have today, and how we can use it to our advantage. Moreso than just putting an image on a map, this feature (GPS tagging in general) can be used for a social networking starting point: With groups and clubs within different regions, states, cities - you name it. All of these details we cram into the photos will give use just one more way to classify the image we've taken, and make it easier for the rest of the world to see.