Twitter Launches Geotagging API

Twitter officially launched its geotagging application-program interface, platform director Ryan Sarver announced on the Twitter Blog.

Users can opt-in by clicking a box in their settings menu, and several third-party tools support the API.

Sarver’s post:

In August, we announced that we were working on a new API that would provide developers with the ability to geotag tweets. Today, the Geotagging API is officially available.

This release is unique in that it’s API-only, which means you won’t see any changes on twitter.com yet. Instead, Twitter applications like Birdfeed, Seesmic Web, Foursquare, Gowalla, Twidroid, Twittelator Pro and others are already supporting this new functionality (go try them out now!) in interesting ways that include geotagging your tweets and displaying the location from where a tweet was posted. The added information provides valuable context when reading your friends’ tweets and allows you to better focus in on local conversations. Now you can find out what live music is playing right now in your neighborhood or what people visiting Checkpoint Charlie are saying today about the anniversary of the Berlin Wall. These are only the beginning, and we are really looking forward to seeing the creative uses emerge from the developer community.

It’s important to note that geotagging is disabled by default for all users, which means you will need to opt-in in order to use it. To activate the new geotagging functionality, go to your Settings page and click “Enable Geotagging.”

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