I finally caved in. I’ve been uploading some selected photographs to Panoramio so that they will appear in the Google Earth Photos layer. As of this writing I have 121 photographs that have been selected to appear in Google Earth, and I’ve submitted more that are awaiting approval.
If you’ve got a Google account, then you can use that to sign into Panoramio and create an account. Photos are uploaded just like they are to any other photo sharing site. Just make sure that your photos are geotagged. Even if they haven’t been geotagged previously, there is a drag-n-drop map so you can locate your photos once they have been uploaded.
Panoramio has some specific guidelines for approval for Google Earth. There are the usual conditions – no pornography, discriminative, or abusive photos. However, there are some other guidelines. They are looking for photos that illustrate a place, so images of people, events, or detailed images of flowers or other items may not be approved. Likewise, interior shots probably won’t be selected for Google Earth.
For Google Earth and Google Maps we select only photos about exterior places: landscapes, monuments, streets, buildings, parks, and so on. All photos must comply with the Panoramio Photo Acceptance Policy.