Photos are often the reminder of happy moments and beautiful locations -- or they might be the visual proof of unexpected or lamentable conditions. They can be masterpieces of perspective and composition and carrier of strong emotions. This way or the other they are in good hands at the MyGreat-Project.
But by means of an advanced database-technology, photos can also become an archive of time and place and a witness of change and development.
Ten years ago Moscow was a different place than today. So was New York or even Stonehenge.
The change of a place and its surrounding area, as it appears today, is sometimes subtle (and sometimes not). It becomes obvious by comparing the chronological advancement in housing and construction and the varying styles in design and architecture. The further an observer is travelling back in time the more evident growth and progress become. This might be fortunate -- but it is not by default.
Combining these different approaches (to a vast mass of digital photography laying dormant on harddrives around the globe), http://www.MyGreatWorld.com opens up its services to the community these days to build a worldwide online-database of literally any spot on earth. Even the very streets users are living in are subject to continuous changes - and to make these trends visible is one of the goals of MyGreatWorld.com.
Also, photos & information from residents and those who know a certain spot are always welcome, both, to make the best out of a trip and not to miss the secret beauty every location holds.
Uploading photos to MyGreatWorld is map-based, fast and easy allowing the user to add new spots to the database (cities, points of interest, landscapes) on the fly. To make the database work, users are asked for the time (year or even better: year & month) and a category their picture fits in best. Any further description a user enters will be additionally indexed for key-words. The same goes for the photo's title. Structures and designs are straightforward and comprehensible without popup-windows or superfluous gadgets.
Retrieving information from the database demonstrates that MyGreatWorld.com offers more than a mere pool of pretty pictures: The Advanced Search allows for combinations of various search-parameters including the time of the capture, the motive, the spot, key-words in title or description and even the filtering for a certain photographer.
Users find at MyGreatWorld.com a solid framework to enrich with their photos, recommondations and opinions. The site is a young project and there is a lot of space yet to be filled. This also means users can still be the first to add a new spot and to present the flair of a place to the world, the ambassador for a town, landscape or favorite point of interest.
"The site lives from the users' engagement and from the belief that on an international level there are no 'boring' or unspectacular photos: The world in all its facets is very well worth seeing and what's 'interesting' is in the eye of the beholder..."
Descriptions are fine. But hand in hand with pictures, they are better. And at MyGreatWorld.com users might use the combination of both.