Back in the summer, Twitter announced that it was working on an API to give developers the ability to geotag tweets. The company has now made that available.
There is no geotagging on Twitter.com yet, but Twitter apps will now be able to support it. So potentially, you will be able to geotag tweets and show the location from where you tweeted.
“The added information provides valuable context when reading your friends tweets and allows you to better focus in on local conversations,” Twitter says in the announcement. “Now you can find out what live music is playing right now in your neighborhood or what people visiting Checkpoint Charlie are saying today about the anniversary of the Berlin Wall. These are only the beginning and we are really looking forward to seeing the creative uses emerge from the developer community.”
If you’re concerned about privacy, you should note that geotagging is disabled by default for all users. You have to opt-in to use it. You can do so by going to the settings page and clicking “enable geotagging.”
In addition to that, Twitter has updated its privacy policy to include geotagging, as well as to “describe the public nature” of most of what people post to Twitter. “We’ve tried to keep it short and sweet with lots of real life examples so it’s simple to read through,” the company says.
The location element can make Twitter more useful in some cases.This doesn’t only apply to where a Twitterer happens to be at any given time, however. It is also helpful to know where they are from or where they reside, in some cases. This means you can find Twitterers of interest in your own town, for example. Our own Twellowhood tool (part of our Twellow service) is a great way to do this.
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