I like http://geophoto.grabeh.net/ for looking at photos around the world, but that may have something do with the fact I built it.
It also uses Instagram photos so there's already a ton of useful content, unlike Color's approach.
Is it similar to http://smwh.re and http://www.travyde.com/explore ?
I've always wondered why Instagram has made it so difficult to find photos by location.
Update: why do you require my Instagram username/pwd when they support OAuth? Not a fan
I've always wondered the same thing, and I think it's because all of the location data in the Instagram app comes from Foursquare. It would be really competitive with Foursquare if Instagram could search locations, so I don't think Foursquare will let them. That being said, all of this could change with Facebook places instead of Foursquare locations: http://www.fastcompany.com/3028166/instagram-testing-faceboo...
The value of spotsy, however, is that you get to see which local spots have the most instagram photos associated with it, which provides value in a different sort of way.
I can see the usefulness of the app in that regard, but not as a photo browsing app.
The investigative newsroom ProPublica (disclosure: my former employer) had a fun use-case, in which they knew of a lobbyist-politician ski resort retreat, looked up the location of the resort, and then used Instagram's location/date filters to see who was on the trip (at least one lobbyist posted a photo from their own publicly identifiable account): http://www.propublica.org/nerds/item/a-super-simple-tool-to-...
I'm not trying to get up on a high horse and preach, it's just kind of gross to completely change the sort of attention that is being directed at something that someone shared.
I know that some of the response to this will be to not post it publicly if you don't want people to see it, but that's exactly the thought I want to push back against, just because something is available at a public url doesn't mean it is a cool thing to point reddit at it.
This has been the case long before Instagram and the Internet becoming mainstream, including the denial of requests for public government records and the photography of police actions on the purported concern for privacy.
I know you're only talking about social norms...but such things influence and are influenced by law and regulations...I'm just pointing out that it doesn't exist in a vacuum.
What other methods did you guys use to investigate "unpublicized" events/occurrences? What barriers did you face to finding that info in general?
Does ProPublica track these types of gatherings?
Just out of curiosity, is this a native app? I really like the animations of the modal windows, I wonder how you made them so awesome!
Yes, it is a native ios app. For animations I used https://github.com/zrxq/UIView-EasingFunctions/
For animations, it's very important to use the right easing function to make it fit the feeling you want to evoke.
For instance, I used a keyframe animation for the login modal when you close it to not log in. It evokes a feeling of disappointment because it awkwardly swings down because you are not logging in :)
I wonder if there was a way to detect pictures of food automatically so it could be filtered out.
Also, these results will be different at different times of day.
