New Photo Sharing Site: Se Habla Español…Et Français

pikeologo.jpgMaybe the world actually does need another photo sharing service. In a recent Spanish blog, one user wrote, (translated from Spanish) “If there is anything in the entire world that I refute, it is that Flickr is in English.”

A new photo sharing site called Pikeo launched in beta about three weeks ago in English, Spanish, and French. But language is not the site’s only claim to fame. The company is emphasizing mapping as the most salient feature.

pikeoscreen.jpg“Maps are the center of the experience,” said Celine Lacombe, project manager for Pikeo, in a phone conversation today. “We think that pictures tell stories when they are inside of maps so that you know where they’ve been taken.”

The cool thing about tagging photos on Pikeo is that users can search photos based on three separate criteria: Who, What, and Where. So if you search for “Paris,” you can find photos categorized by who took them, what they were photographing, and where they are geographically.

Pikeo also has a fast uploading function that doesn’t require users to download a pesky desktop application. You can upload an entire folder directly from the site and it works in the background so that users can continue to browse photos while uploading their own.

Pikeo was built on Adobe’s new Flex 2 technology. It’s about as easy to navigate as they come.

Pikeo development was spearheaded by the San Francisco-based R&D unit of France Telecom. The company will host an official launch party next Tuesday in downtown San Francisco. To land yourself an invitation, click here.