
Panoramio no longer available after Nov 4 - mgliwka
http://www.panoramio.com/maps-faq
======
amelius
That's the sad thing of the cloud. Back in the old days, you could just run
applications for as long as you wanted. I'm wondering how long it will take
until everybody sees this.

~~~
acdha
… until the software stopped being supported and something went unpatched

… until someone got tired of paying for the server and turned it off

… until a hard drive crashed or corrupted data and holes in your backup
strategy were revealed

… but your friends never used it because it was hard to share things, the
desktop app was hard to install, etc.

The cloud model is different. It has pros and cons, and nothing of value will
come from starting a conversation on the false impression that it's
universally worse but people somehow don't see that.

~~~
pavel_lishin
It's not universally worse, but Cloud Business As A Pay Me Until I'm Bored
model has the unfixable flaw that you cannot do anything to fix it.

* If the software stops being supported and isn't patched, you can still run the old version; you could even patch it yourself.

* If someone turns off the server, you migrate to your own. (You're keeping backups, right?)

* If the hard drive crashes, you replace it. (You _ARE_ keeping backups, right?)

* If your friends don't use it, you can try to improve the software, lobby harder, switch to something else, etc.

None of these things are easy, but it's at least possible - and at the very
least, you don't suffer the same sort of emotional ennui due to it being
_completely_ out of your hands.

~~~
acdha
None of that is wrong but I still know far more people who have lost data
because their home computer failed or was compromised. I wish cloud providers
had a legal requirement to export data too, but it's not like people want to
leave the old status quo because it was working too well.

~~~
amelius
> None of that is wrong but I still know far more people who have lost data
> because their home computer failed or was compromised.

Well that's something of the past. We have things like Apple Time Machine now.

~~~
acdha
That's fine for the percentage of people who own something like that, have an
off-site disaster recovery plan, and regularly confirm all of the previous
items are still working but until that number is anywhere near 100%, it's not
“something of the past”.

------
Buetol
Looks like it has already been archived by Archive Team, good job !
[http://tracker.archiveteam.org/panoramio/](http://tracker.archiveteam.org/panoramio/)

~~~
phireal
It's in the process of being archived and is not yet complete.

If you have a spare sever and bandwidth somewhere, you can set up an
ArchiveTeam Warrior. They exist as VM images and docker configurations. I've
set up a docker instance of their Archive Team's archive warrior
([http://www.archiveteam.org/index.php?title=ArchiveTeam_Warri...](http://www.archiveteam.org/index.php?title=ArchiveTeam_Warrior))
and it's currently ploughing its way through the remaining parts of Panoramio
which are missing.

~~~
userbinator
_No OpenDNS. No ISP DNS that redirects to a search page. Use non-captive DNS
servers._

I wonder why they're not running a local full DNS resolver if they're worried
about bad DNS servers?

~~~
hueving
ISPs that block DNS to other servers in the name of "security".

------
eb0la
It's interesting to read this blog post from Eduardo Machon (Panoramio co-
founder) about the day they said no to google - 1 year before they bought
Panoramio.

(In Spanish) [https://eduardomanchon.com/el-d%C3%ADa-que-rechazamos-una-
of...](https://eduardomanchon.com/el-d%C3%ADa-que-rechazamos-una-oferta-de-
compra-de-google-cae425bc763)

------
ungzd
Takeout is available
([https://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout](https://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout)).
There's similar modern service for geotagged photos called Mapillary where you
can migrate photos from Panoramio
[http://blog.mapillary.com/update/2016/10/10/migrating-
from-p...](http://blog.mapillary.com/update/2016/10/10/migrating-from-
panoramio-a-new-home-for-geotagged-photos.html)

~~~
pmontra
TL;DR Google attempted an acquihire on October 2006 but they refused because
they wanted to see the real value of the service and their know how first.
Google bought Panoramio on March 2007. I don't know on which terms.

~~~
tedmiston
Reading between the lines of the (translated) blog post make it sound better.
He refers to the Oct 2006 attempt as an _acquihire_ but Mar 2007 as _actual
acquisition_.

~~~
tedmiston
For reference it was this post mentioned above:

[https://eduardomanchon.com/el-d%C3%ADa-que-rechazamos-una-
of...](https://eduardomanchon.com/el-d%C3%ADa-que-rechazamos-una-oferta-de-
compra-de-google-cae425bc763)

------
pmlnr
This was an invaluable source for finding interesting areas close to you or to
your travel destination. I'm already missing it; the Flickr world map is
garbage compared to what Panoramio was.

I'd love to see this resurrected somehow.

~~~
modeless
Google has several other options for finding interesting areas close to you.
The newest is Google Trips:
[https://get.google.com/trips/](https://get.google.com/trips/), a little older
is Field Trip [https://www.fieldtripper.com/](https://www.fieldtripper.com/),
and of course Google Earth still has plenty of geotagged photos to explore,
either in the client app or in the web version.

Field Trip in particular is worth a look. It somehow contains a wealth of
hyper-local information that you probably won't see elsewhere, at least for
places in the US. I certainly learned things about the history of my local
area that I never would have found out otherwise.

------
Doctor_Fegg
Really sad to see this. In the UK and Ireland there is a superb community
project, Geograph
([http://www.geograph.org.uk/](http://www.geograph.org.uk/)), which collects
geotagged photos and makes them available under an open licence. For example,
I've integrated it into my bike routeplanner at
[http://cycle.travel/map](http://cycle.travel/map) so that you can see photos
of a trail before riding it, so you know what sort of surface to expect.
Panoramio was the nearest to a worldwide equivalent.

(There's Mapillary, of course, but their base API access is $99/month.
OpenStreetView looks promising but it's early days for them.)

------
shaqbert
Oh, that makes me quite sentimental. All the time I wasted on Google Earth
exploring lonely islands, Antarctica, and Kamchatka volcanoes... Panoramio,
you will be missed.

------
Symbiote
Was this the only source of geotagged photos that show in Google Maps?

Since time ago, I added semantic web tags to my photo album, hoping they'd
then appear on the public map. They already have location data in EXIF tags.

Nothing happened. I don't know of any site that indexes images in this way.

~~~
modeless
No, you can contribute photos directly in the Google Maps interface. It's
consolidated with other contribution features like reviews and map editing
(many people don't know that Google Maps has a public map editor). It's all
part of a program called "Local Guides" that awards badges and points and
perks like free Google Drive storage. The incentives seem designed to reward
quick reviews much more than high quality photography though.

~~~
sireat
Google Maps keeps pestering me to add my personal photos to various locations.

That is I would take some pictures on my Android 5.1 phone and Google Maps
would pop a notification. Not sure when it started but this kind of
camera/Google Maps "integration" was not present in 4.4.

The places of interest that Google detects are generally correct but I have
zero interest in adding personal pictures to their public/private DB.

I keep declining but my anger grows.

~~~
triplesec
Especially in the restrictive and rights-thieving T&C. The OS is badly
compromised, and I'd like a better, proper open source option

------
raesene6
I was sorry to see this, although the writing has been on the cards for
Panoramio for some time.

It seems a really odd decision by Google, panoramio had a strong community
which may well not migrate to the alternatives that google are suggesting and
it provided a load of useful information for other Google services.

Anyone know of decent similar alternatives? I know one large contributor who's
moving off to Flickr, but is not very impressed by their mapping setup.

~~~
ungzd
> Anyone know of decent similar alternatives?

Mapillary. It's mostly for photo sequences (like streetview) but single photos
are supported too.

------
smpetrey
Ah man, knew this one was coming one day. But you know what Google Local
Guides is awesome. If you're a fan of Panoramio go sign up and become a Local
Guide.

~~~
triplesec
Except their T&C are revoltingly grabbing of image rights. No thanks.

------
edpichler
Google is really good on killing services. If it's does not make an incredible
amount of money, they just kill it.

They are not dumb, of course, so this apparently seems to be a good strategy.

~~~
yitchelle
Maybe I am being too cynical, but they are running a business after all.

I guess they showed some goodwill by delaying their shutdown from when they
first announced it.

~~~
Klathmon
The thing i don't get about the Google "shutdown" hate, is that I don't think
they've ever given less than a year notice, they ALWAYS have a way to export
your data in at least one common format (often more), and in many cases they
even point out 3rd party alternatives (although in this case it doesn't look
like they did).

IMO they handle shutdowns the best out of any company i've ever seen. And at
least with their services you'll have some heads up that it is going to be
shut down, whereas if you go with a startup or smaller company, you sometimes
have literally no notice at all.

It's their way of working, try new things, kill those that aren't working out.
And I like the way it works, but I fear that a lot of people hate it and that
it's going away... (although I guess it's kind of ironic that i'm mourning the
loss of a "way of working" much the same way that people are mourning the loss
of the service)

------
joosters
Goodbye to another Google service.

To be fair, most of the features had been integrated into Google maps. Was
there anything left?

~~~
DocTomoe
Well, API access. Sometimes, you need the photos without the map.

