Well done, Flickr!

Tonight I decided to put all of the photos from my University of Oregon Black and White set on the Flickr map. After I was done with that, I thought I'd once again check out their new, improved map feature. When they redesigned it, I wasn't too impressed. But now, I've changed my mind.

When you're on the Flickr map, zoom in to or search for an area that interests you, and red dots should start popping up. The corresponding photos will show up on a ribbon on the middle-bottom of the screen. You can view photos by date or by interestingness. To view a photo, either click on a photo in the ribbon (which will highlight the corresponding dot), or click the dot. Either way, a small version of the photo will pop up, with cool animation. Other photos in the spot will be highlighted in the ribbon as well. If you want to see a larger version of the photo, just click on it and a new window or tab will open. To see more photos, click on one of the arrow buttons on the ribbon. The ribbon paginates the photos so that not too many show up at once.

Now here is the really good part: If you want to see photos from only the area you are viewing, you click on the little green arrows icon just below the ribbon. This will restrict the photos to the current viewing area, and thus you can page through and see available photos for the area you are viewing. This saves much time, because you no longer have to page through all the photos in the city or geographic area you searched for.

Below is an example of the map interface, showing the photo ribbon. Click to see it in a larger size: