GeoTagging

[JackWolfgang]

I'm not sure what will become of GeoTags, but I have written a blog article (http://home.alltel.net/jackwolfgang/blog/2005/01/geotags-application.html) about why I believe churches should use them.

[David Gillaspey]

I checked out the GeoTags site. Didn't do too much for me, I'm sorry to say -- only the Multimap feature worked.

But, seems to me that MapQuest and similar services are more useful.

Maybe I'm missing something, though, about the concept. Could you fill us in?

Sincerely,

David Gillaspey
President
Great Church Websites

[JackWolfgang]

There used to be two sites that would show a map, and you could click on the map and see web sites in the area. The sites are GeoURL.com and GeoTags.com. GeoURL is reporting that it is down for renovation, and GeoTags.com appears not to have any data in it. Furthermore, GeoTags produces an error when you try to add to its database.

However, there is a site called A2B (http//www.A2B.cc) that will allow you to search for sites near an entered latitude and longitude. A2B also allows you to search for sites near a web site.

There is also some discussion at the World Wide Web Consortium about standardizing geographic meta-data.

That said, a revival of a geographic search engine (A2B is currently the best thing in that arena, as far as I can tell. The one cool thing about it, is if you have a GPS attached to your computer, it can read the coordinates from the GPS.) could mean that people would use this to find your church.

Of note though, is that Google (http://local.google.com) and Yahoo! (http://local.yahoo.com/) have introduced Local Searchs. However, Google's appears to operate by "Screen Scraping", which means just what is seen on the page is used for the location.

I hope this clarified things some, and if not, hopefully it didn't muddy the waters too badly.

[David Gillaspey]

There used to be two sites that would show a map, and you could click on the map and see web sites in the area.
Hi Jack,

Define "area". A church might be located in Portland, Oregon, but use a webserver located in Chicago. If I click on Chicago, presumably I only see sites "located" (whatever that means) in Chicago.

Furthermore, what about sites such as mine? I'm located in Lake Oswego, Oregon (a suburb of Portland), but that's only the legal address of the corporation (and where I lay my head down to sleep each night). My webserver is in Chicago.

Great Church Websites itself really isn't located anywhere, in a sense. What would the system define as the "area" in which it's located? (I'm curious to know.)

Sincerely,

David Gillaspey
President
Great Church Websites

[JackWolfgang]

Hi Jack,

Define "area". A church might be located in Portland, Oregon, but use a webserver located in Chicago. If I click on Chicago, presumably I only see sites "located" (whatever that means) in Chicago.

Furthermore, what about sites such as mine? I'm located in Lake Oswego, Oregon (a suburb of Portland), but that's only the legal address of the corporation (and where I lay my head down to sleep each night). My webserver is in Chicago.

Great Church Websites itself really isn't located anywhere, in a sense. What would the system define as the "area" in which it's located? (I'm curious to know.)

Sincerely,

David Gillaspey
President
Great Church Websites

But the beauty of GeoTagging is that the tags are in the page, so regardless of where you are hosted, you can make the tags point to the appropriate location.

GCW doesn't really need GeoTags, but a church web site is a perfect application for this.

[David Gillaspey]

OK, got it. Thanks!

Sincerely,

David Gillaspey
President
Great Church Websites

[JackWolfgang]

GeoURL.org (http://www.GeoURL.org) is back up in 2.0 beta version. The map isn't as functional as it should be, but there is a new developer working on it.

[mk_elliott]

The lack of geography of the internet is good/appropriate for many things..
but a Church generally HAS a geographic location AND wants people to KNOW it, Yes?
So GEOtagging seems appropriate for the local Church Website.

[David Gillaspey]

but a Church generally HAS a geographic location AND wants people to KNOW it, Yes?You would think that would be the case. Truth is, a surprisingly large percentage of church websites make the church location hard to find.

#8 on my Top 10 Church Website Design Tips

http://www.greatchurchwebsites.org/top_10_tips.php

includes the admonition to put your church's full address on the home page. Many church websites don't. And that wouldn't be so bad if the church address was always to be found on either the "Service Times" page or the "Contact Us" page (or the "How to find us" page) ? that is, the same page on all church websites.

But the location of a church address varies from website to website. Sometimes a church's address is found on the "Service Times" page of a website, sometimes on the "Contact Us" page of a website, or elsewhere. There's no consistency, I mean.

Now view this post

http://www.greatchurchwebsites.org/forums/showthread.php?t=5

(toward the end of post #8)

however, for an alternate opinion.

Sincerely,

David Gillaspey
President
Great Church Websites

[generalhavok]

Personally, as a developer of sites offering local services as well as international, I LOVE the idea of Geotagging. I think that developers of all stripes should get behind the development of tag standards for browsers. That would allow sites to declare themselves 'adult' in nature, giving parents the ability to block those sites systemically. Other types of tags would tell where the services or products on a site are typically available.

Search engines like Google and Yahoo (and advertisers like both of them) could use the tags to make advertising more effective and keep businesses (and churches) from "competing" with those who aren't really in a position to compete. Why would I want a real estate site in Chicago to show up in my search for Denver real estate?