HOWTO: Geotag Anything
Following on from Phillip Torrones excellent post detailing how to geotag and add Flickr images to Google Earth, I wanted to be able to tag anything to a specific location. After playing around with Tagzania I finally managed to figure out how to make this work.
Google Earth gives you the ability to create a Network Link. By pointing this at the KML output from Tagzania you can effectively map any item to specific locations on the Earth.
Once you’ve got it setup right you should see something like my example below (you may need to click on the image to see it full size).
So, how to setup your own?
- Step 1. Register with Tagzania
- Step 2. Login to your new account
- Step 3. Create your first Tagzania post
NOTE: use decimal lat and long if you’re adding the location manually, Google Earth seems to prefer decimal over traditional
Easy so far, things get a little tricky now.
- Step 4. Click on your username in Tagzania, you should now see some thing similar to this:
- Step 5. right click on the small orange KML button and open the file in Notepad
- Step 6. Copy the link in the KML file that has “kmlitems”
- Step 7. Now switch to Google Earth and Add a Network Link, paste in the link you copied in step 6.
- Step 8. there is no step 8, you’re done. You should now have your tagzania geotagged items displaying on Google Earth. (You may need to play about with Zoom etc.)
If there’s any errors in the above guide please let me know. Happy tagging.
Oh and if you want to see my Tagzania tags, cut and paste this link into Add Network Link in your Google Earth:
http://www.tagzania.com/kmlitems/user/grasshoppermind
tags: geotag, Flickr, Google Earth, KML, geotagged, tagging, grasshoppermind
August 22nd, 2005 at 11:09 pm
Isn\t it even easier? In step 5, just click on the KML button, and a premade network tag should open in Google Earth. At least it does for me.
August 23rd, 2005 at 7:05 am
Thanks for the tip Stephan, when I tried this with IE6 it worked just as you suggested. Unfortunately in Firefox it only works as I’ve written it above? Weird, anyone got any ideas?
August 23rd, 2005 at 10:25 am
Yes, try to save as, or else make sure Firefox knows what to do about the KML and KMZ extensions (that is, open them with Google Earth)
September 30th, 2005 at 2:54 pm
[…] -Firstly, Google Earth lends itself brilliantly to location based items. I used an example of this in my earlier post Howto geotag anything. I created a Tagzania account to list several items for sale that were relevant to my location (Isle of Man). Once the KML file is opened in Google Earth, you will see some links to DVD’s and Books etc. If you click on these, you get taken to Amazon using my affiliate links. (I used ElfURL to keep the links nice and manageable) […]
December 8th, 2005 at 12:02 pm
I was just searching for a KML button to use on a site I’m working on, and clicked through to here. What a suprise to see my home island pop up in this context. Great to see other people at home are interested in geotagging too!
August 21st, 2007 at 3:22 pm
how can i enable the geo tag in my application?