A Blog Near You
During the Automattic company meetup, Team 21* holed up in a cottage outside Québec to create a new set of features for a blog near you (literally!). Have you ever wondered where in the world a blog post was written? Where a commenter was located? If there were other WordPress.com bloggers near you? If so, hold on to your hat, because you’re going to love the geotagging and geolocation features we’re introducing.
Starting today, when you log in to write a post, you have the option of identifying your location. For browsers that support it, we can get this information automatically through the magic of 21st century technology and you just have to double-check to make sure the location is correct. You can also enter your location manually. This feature is opt-in, meaning that if you don’t want anyone to know where you were when you wrote a post, that’s okay.
Enter an address, click the map, or auto detect your location
In addition to geotagging posts, you can also geotag your profile. Interested in reading blogs by other people in your area? A quick search will find them, and in the future could even be used to organize local WordPress.com user meetups.
Right now, we’re only collecting and exposing geodata for posts and profiles. Geotagged posts get marked up with the geo microformat, geo.position and ICBM meta tags, and GeoRSS and W3C geodata in feeds.
This is all machine readable data: hidden from display. What good is it if it’s hidden? It tells search engines where your posts are located, and with browser plugins like Operator and Geo, you can view geo information on any web page (not just WordPress.com geotagged posts).
The machine readable data is cool and geeky, but what about something for us humans? Right now, we don’t display geo data anywhere in a human readable way. Don’t worry, though. We’ll be launching theme integration, various maps, widgets, and shortcodes soon.
This is just the beginning. Building on this platform, we’ll gradually roll out more geotagging features, such as showing the location of your commenters, the location of poll votes, a live map view of blog updates on WordPress.com, or an annual report showing you where your posts were written and where your comments came from — kind of a blogger’s version of the Dopplr annual travel report.
For now, we’re pretty psyched about the geotagging and (the upcoming) search of posts and profiles and hope you’ll all give this new feature a try! If there are other geotagging features you’d like to see built on this foundation, suggest them in the comments!
For more information, check out the Geotagging support page.
Note: We’re holding off on launching the geo search feature until we start getting some data (from you!). So start geotagging 
*Team 21 consisted of Jane, Jon, Mike and Stephane.
November 14th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
great. i don’t really get that much comments though.
November 14th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
i like it
November 14th, 2009 at 5:14 pm
Cool, we will give it a go. Thank you.
November 14th, 2009 at 5:20 pm
Oh yeah!
November 14th, 2009 at 9:42 pm
Yes please get on with it
November 14th, 2009 at 10:22 pm
The geotag feature is pretty neat.
November 14th, 2009 at 10:53 pm
Eeek! Now all us Conspiracy Theorists will be worried about cruise missiles coming calling when we post agin’ the Establishment …
knock knock
“Who’s there?”
“Bombo-gram!”
BOOM
… but it would be nice to socialise!
November 14th, 2009 at 11:42 pm
Does the WordPress app for iPhone support geotagging? Or will it in future updates if not?
November 24th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
No current support, but it’s something that we want to include in a future release.
November 15th, 2009 at 12:20 am
Even if you are able to disable the feature so that other users cannot SEE you on a map the machine is always aware of your IP address and the digital blur of your text. It knows you, it has to, and so does any one with administrative privileges.
Now it is only a matter of letting the rest of the world WATCH YOU… on the map of course, if you want to…
Within the digital matrix there is no where to hide, but who wants to anyway, so don’t be shy. Just behave…
November 15th, 2009 at 1:42 am
Very very nice. It’s great and most important for us cause it has a high creativity. In other language I say ‘ itu kreatifitas tinggi’
November 15th, 2009 at 1:42 am
Like the post’er ShadowWingTronix earlier on this column, I don’t mind that my Hometown and State are mentioned. I already gave that info on my blog. Looking forward to it, thanks from Ralph Baker!
November 15th, 2009 at 3:07 am
Well said!
November 15th, 2009 at 3:16 am
Hmmm…Have you considered the possibility that this will make it possible for someone upset with a blogger to track him/her down…
November 24th, 2009 at 7:14 pm
It is optional. If you don’t want to put your location information out there, you don’t have to.
November 15th, 2009 at 5:12 am
Great idea, I will be “grey nomading” around Australia next year, can see lots of possibilities for geo tagging in my blog.
November 15th, 2009 at 5:27 am
What a great idea, I love it!
November 15th, 2009 at 8:50 am
Thank you for this nice features, I have another request too.
As scripts are not allowed in wordpress.com widgets, please develope something for adding a facebook fan button, twitter updates widget and network blog subscription button widgets.
It will be great additions.
November 15th, 2009 at 10:45 am
Do we reeeaally want to be tracked down? Country is good enough I think……..
November 15th, 2009 at 12:18 pm
Very good. Particularly, and worldwide, useful, to improve social integration among regionally near bloggers.
November 15th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
Pretty nice feature, cheers. I’ll be very surprised if I find anyone blogging near me in London, mind.
November 15th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
i think this is kind of scary. most of the people that bloggers (hopefully) encounter are presumably okay, but the potential to run across someone who is not quite right is pretty high. i agree with some of the other comments above — if i wanted my identity and my location to be fully known, i would share…
but since it is optional, whatever. i do use feedjit on my blog, so it does list the general location of my visitors (and myself) on my blog. and i think that is enough.
November 15th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
I am not so sure that I want everyone (or anyone) to know my location for the same reasons as some others list. But then again, for a potential local blog…maybe.
November 15th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
sounds cool!
November 15th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
Yes, I think I’ll like it – I live in a big city but not sure I’d like it if I lived in a town of 15,000 people.
November 15th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
Looks fun.
I don’t think people should be worried about stalkers and such. If you’re afraid you’re going to be tracked down for something, maybe you shouldn’t be writing about it at all?
Anyway, nice update.
November 15th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
Oh Fabulous!
November 15th, 2009 at 6:23 pm
I don’t think this is a good idea. There are plenty of nutters about looking for their next target. No thankyou.
November 15th, 2009 at 6:49 pm
I can’t see this feature on my blog yet
November 24th, 2009 at 7:17 pm
Check your WordPress.com profile page. You should be able to turn it on there.
November 15th, 2009 at 6:58 pm
Thanks for this information. well done
November 15th, 2009 at 6:59 pm
Neat idea!
November 15th, 2009 at 7:29 pm
Hope you are moving towards robust IP tracing and real statistics like “shiney stats” that break down users/visotors by location and country etc.
I am really lookin forward to IP racing so that “masked” commentators can be unmasked and their duplicate comments under different names exposed.
A better understanding of where the readers are will help me cater to user needs and increase traffic. Right now all we get is the number of readers–which do not correlate to other plug in statistics or google numbers.
Still waiting for a real search engine for my blog and a “Table fo Content” generation command that would enable the user to sort and find the aricles he/she is looking for. Right now I have to go to search.wrodpress.com or google.com and unter “site” searchable content–which is a strange way to searching
November 15th, 2009 at 7:42 pm
looking forward to see…, thanks
November 15th, 2009 at 9:13 pm
One of the main reasons why I’ve chosen to blog anonymously is to remain just that, so this application doesn’t appeal to me!
November 15th, 2009 at 10:14 pm
Marvellous!
November 15th, 2009 at 10:24 pm
Glad you’ve made it opt-in as I’m not at all sure that I like it. Many of my commenters — for perfectly good reasons — like to post under pseudonyms. The last thing they or I need is something that compromises that by giving away their locations. Not good, not at all good: feels too much like spyware. Sorry guys: not your best idea.
November 16th, 2009 at 12:40 am
i love it
November 16th, 2009 at 12:53 am
Nice feature WP team. but giving exactly where you live on internet? I won’t do it
November 16th, 2009 at 1:21 am
Uh, “ICBM” meta tag? Do I really want be geo-targeted via a tag named after a missile? ;-D
November 16th, 2009 at 1:33 am
I like!
November 16th, 2009 at 1:47 am
great! I like it.
November 16th, 2009 at 3:51 am
Wow, neat!
November 16th, 2009 at 4:06 am
That sounds awesome!
November 16th, 2009 at 8:03 am
Just another way to bring us all together
November 16th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
Well, I believe that this geotagging feature may have a potential for business application. It is very interesting to know how far this technology will go in the future. Well Done!!
November 16th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
A good thing….. Looking forward to it…..
November 16th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
That’s sounds nice, very nice
November 16th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
I think this feature is great. It seems a lot of people are sceptical, mainly with the privacy concern, but the beauty of it, you don’t have to do it. I like the idea of tracking your readship and also allowing them to track you.
It’s an round-about way but you can do the same thing by looking up IP. Doesn’t provide the exact address but can identify in general where someone is by IP. Country, state, city…
Question, if I was blogging on a moving train would it track each location of my posts?
November 19th, 2009 at 9:47 am
Excellent question! It would probably work if you have GPS, otherwise it’s likely that your IP addresses wouldn’t change. Test it out and let us know how it goes!
November 16th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
Wow! Have been dying for this feature. Now if we could only get something to know what location the hits are coming from. That would be ultra cool.
November 16th, 2009 at 7:35 pm
WOW! Cool feature. I never knew this was going to happen.
November 16th, 2009 at 8:12 pm
This sounds really nice. Well done!
November 16th, 2009 at 10:26 pm
this looks super duper cool. omg!!! i’m going to try this soon!
November 16th, 2009 at 10:31 pm
Awesome. This is the idea of “Federalismo”, i think…
November 16th, 2009 at 11:50 pm
Better late than never lol
Thanks! This feature will transform WordPress into a (even) more international place
November 16th, 2009 at 11:51 pm
Nice feature, I was just wondering if something like this existed not too long ago as well; I guess this answers my question.
November 17th, 2009 at 12:53 am
hello, nice info, if you want to see many beautiful placeat Bali visit me tks
November 17th, 2009 at 3:56 am
If only someone would make some decent enough WordPress themes then WordPress.com would be perfect. Nice new addition though. I love it.
November 17th, 2009 at 5:10 am
Well, this sure doesnt look like something very innovative since knowing the location through IP is already around. There are many maps working as widgets etc. Though you cant get the precise location through IP, I am not sure if Geo tagging overcomes that.
It would be interesting to know where the traffic comes from for analysis but being more and more exposed over the web always reminds me of those Sandra Bullock movies where ultimately the Government of some other organization will decide your fate 24/7 which sure sounds like living in Jail ; a chain of Technology.
November 17th, 2009 at 8:58 am
OMG, this is more than flexuble bloging. I LOVE IT!
November 17th, 2009 at 9:19 am
sounds interesting!!! I think it is really good!
November 17th, 2009 at 11:53 am
Interesting feature but it’s a shame to say that google map doesn’t actually cover up 3rd world countries — yes, even I’m ashamed to use such phrase (3rd world?).
November 19th, 2009 at 9:35 am
Geotagging is available in all locations. Once more folks activate that option, you’ll be seeing posts from around the world
November 17th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
Am I your first from Thailand?
November 17th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
lovely…
already using it..
and im loving it already
November 17th, 2009 at 3:43 pm
Sounds great =) Gonna figure it out… maybe I´ll find someone near me =)
Great blog, thanks for sharing.
Monserrat
November 17th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
“We plan on releasing these features as a WordPress.org plugin as well.” Any idea when this might be?
Also to those nay-saying the idea; if you don’t like it, don’t use it. *You* might not see a use for it, but plenty of other people (epic visionaries like the folks at Automattic) do see uses for it. Kindly take your negativity elsewhere and let us enjoy this fantastic development.
Despite being epic visionaries, why oh why do you insist I have a wordpress.com as my profile URL to post a comment? Seems unfairly protectionist… my WP.com isn’t my primary site. I’ll be changing back once I’ve submitted my comment…
November 17th, 2009 at 9:24 pm
Stephanie, Jane:
Thanks very much for your replies and clarifications of Nov. 16 and 17, respectively. We plan to put the geo-tagging feature to work immediately.
November 18th, 2009 at 2:41 am
imagine! we can play hide and seek
November 18th, 2009 at 8:45 am
Nice feature for those that want to use it, but just a little too stalktastic for me.
November 18th, 2009 at 8:50 am
where will this lead to , I wonder ..
November 18th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
wow so nice, great idea!!!!
November 18th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
Is this feature available already?, if so how can I use it
November 24th, 2009 at 7:24 pm
You need to activate it from your profile page. Go to your blog’s Admin, and then click your username in the top right.
Or click “Edit Profile” under the “My Account” section of the WordPress.com bar at the top of any WordPress.com page.
November 18th, 2009 at 6:02 pm
I thought this is interesting and fun!
It is great to write and to know we have blog neighbors, real people breathing and pulsing in the other side of the walls of our corners in the net.
I wish you well.
~ Jeques
November 18th, 2009 at 6:21 pm
Ah progress! Now if someone is angry enough about your blog they will know where to find you. Be careful what you write the censor police will be knocking on your door. The other side,of course, is that it may open up some local networking opportunities.
November 18th, 2009 at 7:29 pm
very good !!
November 18th, 2009 at 7:57 pm
Hello Jane,
Good idea. I believe it will soon be standard and include even more services.
Happy blogging,
Daniel Stanislaus
November 18th, 2009 at 8:55 pm
This will be cool as I am an international endurance athlete and I want my readers to know what a glamorous lifestyle I lead.
November 18th, 2009 at 10:53 pm
General location – fine – no argument with that – anyone who reads my blog regularly already knows roughly where I live.
An address though? No way – absolutely not – far too many psychos out there.
November 19th, 2009 at 3:31 am
I wonder if / when this be available on the Apple iPhone WordPress version. For which types of blogs will this add the most value? Blogs rich in nearby photos? Blogs on a vacation? Blogs about a region?
November 19th, 2009 at 5:24 am
Family union made easy
November 19th, 2009 at 9:57 am
I’m writing my blog while travelling. Perfect!
Thanks!
November 19th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
Sweeeet. Very sweet betul-betul
November 19th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
Great feature, thanks! Makes various airport posts much more spectacular.
November 19th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
Big Brother is already watching me, now he has to know where I am blogging from, too?! Kewl.
November 19th, 2009 at 6:20 pm
Like it!
November 19th, 2009 at 7:54 pm
RandomizeME
November 13th, 2009 at 1:56 am
Very cool. Very cool indeed. Commence the stalking. jk
~~~~~~~~~~~~
lol. this was funny to read XD awesome humor
November 19th, 2009 at 8:25 pm
This is a fantastic development, thank you. A few thoughts:
I’m much more intereted in tagging (or seeing others tag) the locations of the content of a
post, rather than my/ the blogger’s location. If I’m in Birmingham, writing about a place in Amsterdam, the post should be tagged with coordinates for, and mapped to, Amsterdam.
I want to be able to expose the coordinates alongside the post, using the microformat: please make this an option.
Please give an option to include the coordinates as geotags, such as:
* geo:lat=-1.56403
* geo:lon=53.60913
as described in http://pigsonthewing.wordpress.com/2008/07/04/triple-tags-on-twitter/
Why not also emit other comparable metatags such as dc.spatial ?
It would, be good to know you’ll take these points on-board; RSVP.
November 24th, 2009 at 7:11 pm
How each post is tagged is up to the author. We’ll keep your other suggestions in mind as we go. This is just the beginning.
November 24th, 2009 at 8:00 pm
Just to add to what Sheri already mentioned.
The post author can geotag his or her post with any location. It doesn’t have to be where the author currently is located on the earth. In your example, the author (writing from Alabama) would type in the appropriate Amsterdam location.
For each publicly geotagged post, we already expose the location in an invisible geo microformat. We’re currently working on making the data “human readable” (meaning visible and understandable to us humans as opposed to invisible, machine readable data).
In addition to the geo microformat, we also output geo.position and ICBM meta tags (only on the post’s individual permalink page).
For example, a posts from Santa Monica, CA would have the following meta tags.
It would also have the following (invisible) microformat markup.
Feeds also expose this information via standard tags.
With all of that, I think we already have good coverage for machine readable data.
Check out the bottom of http://en.support.wordpress.com/geotagging/ for more info.
As the post mentions, we’re currently working on exposing the data in a human readable way: visible microformats, maps, widgets, shortcodes, theme integration, etc.
November 19th, 2009 at 10:00 pm
This is a product of our time. We stamp everything else, like photo’s… It’s not a matter of agreeing or disagreeing.
November 20th, 2009 at 3:40 am
Pretty cool stuff, however, followthatmouse makes a very valid point!
November 20th, 2009 at 5:32 am
Excellent¡¡¡¡
November 20th, 2009 at 6:41 am
very good. this is a good idea. thank you very much.
November 20th, 2009 at 9:00 am
good ideas
November 20th, 2009 at 11:06 am
What a idea !
November 20th, 2009 at 11:24 am
I agree with the comments regarding controversial blogs and just plain “haters”. Although it is an interesting concept, it does pose many risk and may create a means for stalking or worse. Many people may consider it an invasion of privacy including myself. A general location such as a state may be safe, yet should be optional by the blogger. I personally know that some people have some things which are very worth tracking down.