The Google Picasa team has added two important updates to the Picasa Web Albums: Mobile access (which I have mentioned in my previous post) and online geo-tagging. To those who are new to the idea, geo-tagging (or geocoding) is the process of adding geographical information to images or any other media.

The concept of geo-tagging became popular during the same time when tags started to become widely used. Although there are many tools that are available to geo-tag your photos, the idea and process can still be a little too technical (and inconvenient) for the casual user. However, with the addition of geo-tagging in Picasaweb (or “mapping your albums” in user-friendly speak), many ordinary users will now be able to add geographical data to their picasa albums in very easy and intuitive way.

To start mapping your photos in Picasaweb, pick an album from your Photos that you would like to map. On the icons on the top of your album pictures, click on the “map Photos” button.

This will bring up the main web interface for mapping your photos in the map. This is presented in a very intuitive interface, with your album pictures on the left side, and a Google map occupies the main part of the interface. Upon first load interface, a dialog box appears asking for your starting location.

The Google map features the same three views found on the regular version: Map, Satellite and Hybrid.

Go to the location where you took your photos, and set the appropriate view of the map before you start mapping your photos. After doing that, mapping your photos would really be just a matter of drag and drop.
Select a photo (or a set of photos) from your album, and drag to them to the appropriate place on the map where they were taken. To select multiple photos from the album, press the shift key while clicking on the photos.

You can click on any photo already added to the map for a detailed view the specific geo-tag (Latitude and Longitude). You can also remove a photo from the map while on this detailed view by clicking the remove from map button

After you’re done adding the photos to the map, just press the Done button on the upper left border of the map and you’re done geo-tagging your photos. Now it couldn’t be easier than that.

Now that you have mapped the photos in your Picasaweb album, you (and other users who have access to your albums) can view a slideshow of your albums in the map, moving around the map as it shows each photo on the exact spot on the map where it was taken.