Flickr Slated To Publicly Unveil New Maps And Places Features Today

Last month we brought you word that Flickr would be launching “geotag”-centric upgrades.

One upgrade would be a new, more enhanced world map, enabling easier access to the world of photographs – now numbered at two-billion-plus – uploaded to the website’s servers. The photo service also claimed to be near the release of something called Flickr Places, which would enable one to limit searches to specific locations and see a variety of information deemed relevant to a particular spot upon the globe, be it a city, town – or even a single landmark. All in all, Flickr would offer better and more attractive ways to search through the reams of digital images tagged by users.

Well, Flickr has officially come through on the promises made at the O’Reilly Web 2.0 Summit in October. The company is slated to unveil both new features today to provide people with tools both easier-to-use and more powerful to further enjoy the photo browsing experience the site provides.

It is launching Flickr Places with catalogue of over 100,000 tagged locations photographed by everyone from tourist to average locals to pro-am and even pro shooters. And it’s a welcome addition. The hodgepodge of digital pictures present on the site is quite difficult to wade through simply via the standard search option that’s been present on its pages for years, and the ability to cordon off one’s discovery process in a very visually intuitive way is far more rewarding than has ever been in the past. Though interesting snapshots of interesting places have technically always been there to discover, they’ve only now been neatly packaged for your convenience. A major plus, for sure.

The enhancements and changes made to Flickr’s Maps feature are also appreciated, as they allow one to scour the globe for items in a more comprehensive fashion. The new setup is no doubt more elegant and intuitive, and for that it’s likely to be used more than has been so in the past. Whereas dots with numbers have been the signatory markers displayed on the map denoting recent activity on the site, text-based tags will be the new way to find new images. Interacting with said tags will activate a horizontal scroll bar of thumbnailed photos, spanning the full length of the window. Which means, generally speaking, more stuff to look at. Upgrade? We think so.

The abovementioned features are more evolutionary than revolutionary for Flickr. To think otherwise would be to really “drink the Kool-Aid”, as it were. But as the service on the whole works relatively well already, it’s certainly better to amend where amending is deemed necessary, rather than institute sweeping alterations.

Working on a phrase used countless times before, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Only, if need be, enhance it.

Keep in mind, if you visit the site now rather than later, you may find that Flickr has not unveiled the new geotagging features. Don’t worry. They’re very, very close to doing so.