Panoramio has worked hand in hand with Google for a long time, but, on Wednesday evening, the relationship became more of a hand within hand sort of thing as Google acquired the company.
Panoramio “is a website that enables digital photographers to geolocate, store and organize their photographs – and to view those photographs in Google Earth and Google Maps,” as explained by a statement from Google. The acquisition won’t change any of that; Panoramio will continue to be a default layer in Google Earth.
Yet, presumably because of the privacy concerns that pop up whenever Google is involved, Panoramio users are being provided with the opportunity to “opt out” of the acquisition. Users who don’t choose this option – or who do nothing at all – will, at the close of the deal, have their Panoramio-related data and photos transferred to the search engine giant.
The acquisition will, however, “bring many advantages to Panoramio users, starting with a better infrastructure to improve the reliability of Panoramio, more frequent updates of Panoramio’s Google Earth layer, and more resources for some invisible tasks that take time out from working on new features,” according to “José, Joaquín and Eduardo” – Panoramio’s three leading men. (Joaquín and Eduardo are actually co-founders.)
One last note – even as the $75 million deal between eBay and StumbleUpon is confirmed, we’ve been left in the dark about the financial details of the Google-Panoramio acquisition. The terms were not disclosed, but, according to Panoramio’s Blog, the company was “very (and we mean very) happy” about the takeover.
