360cities

Publishing panoramas and panospheres

In this series of web pages, I have documented the process which I currently use to create 360x180 degree panoramas and panospheres (mini planets). This page explains how I publish my panoramas on 360cities and why I like using this photo-sharing web site. I also use Flickr for publishing my panoramas and panospheres and explain why I like that service on my next page.

Publishing in 360cities

Most of my 360x180 degree panoramas are published on 360cities, which is a free service, with unlimited uploads, provided that images are not taken for commercial purposes. Paid options exist for commercial images and multiple users.

The images on 360cities are georeferenced, which means they linked to a specific location and orientated with the compass directions.

The interactive viewer is very impressive, working on computers with and without Flash. The mobile viewer for iPads and similar devices is particularly impressive, as it uses the accelerometer to allow the viewer to navigate through the panorama by turning the device. On the PC, it is possible to see the location and direction of view on high resolution Google satellite imagery as the panoramic view is rotated with the mouse. The resolution of the images on 360cities is higher than on Flickr and images may be selected for inclusion on Google Earth. It is not possible to publish panospheres on 360cities.

Between June and the end of October, I have published ten panoramas on 360 cities.

Click here to view the equirectangular panorama of Glendurgan in 360cities.

I put the code for linking to the 360cities viewers in my description in Flickr. An example for the Glendurgan panorama, the description contains the following text:

Click here to view the equirectangular panorama in an interactive viewer from fieldofview.com or here to view it in www.360cities.net.

If you want a blow-by-blow account of how this panorama was created, click here.

The corresponding HTML snippet to add the links can just be entered straight into the description field on the photograph, although you need to be in edit mode to be able to copy and paste the code:

Click <a href="http://fieldofview.com/flickr/?page=photos/wmvanstone/8132411223/in/photostream" rel="nofollow">here</a> to view the equirectangular panorama in an interactive viewer from <a href="http://fieldofview.com/" rel="nofollow">fieldofview.com</a> or <a href="http://www.360cities.net/image/glendurgan-panorama?override_cache=true#136.00,11.40,70.0" rel="nofollow">here</a> to view it in <a href="http://www.360cities.net" rel="nofollow">www.360cities.net</a><br>If you want a blow-by-blow account of how this panorama was created, click <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/carpebble/home/360x180-panoramas" rel="nofollow">here</a>.

The last page explains how I use my Flickr account for publishing panoramas and panospheres.