Dave's Favorites: Smugmug Adds Locations to Your Photos

Experts say that location services are the Next Big Thing. Certainly, there's been an explosion in all things locational, such as Global Positioning System devices, Web-based satellite maps, driving directions, and location-based services via cell phone.

Add one more to the list: associating digital photos with the location they were taken. Smugmug is one of the first sites to make this concept a reality. After you post your photos to the popular Web site, you're offered the opportunity to enter a physical address or pick a location from a map. People who browse your photos can then, with a click, get a view of your images on Google's satellite map.

If your digital camera is capable of marking image files with GPS coordinates, Smugmug grabs that information automatically. While there aren't many cameras with GPS capabilities today, I'm sure this will become common within a couple of years.

Smugmug offers a very cool addition to the world of digital photo metadata. To see it in action, visit this map of New York City and click on the pushpin icons to see photo collections.

I expect this sort of thing to become huge in a year or two--and remember, you heard it here first.