Explore the world with Photowhirl for Windows 8

There are some great photo sharing services on the web and sites like Flickr, Instagram and others are fantastic places for people that like photos. On Instagram you can select people to follow, such as fashion or landscape photographers, celebrities and so on. On Flickr you can browse the latest uploads or explorer galleries. Photowhirl offers a different view.

Photowhirl is a Windows 8 app that is available for free in the Windows 8 Store. It is in the Photography section, but all you need to do is to type the name when you are in the Store and the search facility pops up and finds it.

The app displays a map in the centre of the screen and you can zoom in and out, drag and scroll, show normal and satellite views and so on. There's a button to go to your current location on the map too. All the usual stuff you can do with maps.

On the map are pins with tiny thumbnail images of photos and these are the places where photos have been taken. So you could zoom into New York or London for example, and see pins where people have taken photos.

 Photowhirl gets the images from 500px, Flickr, Panoramio and Instagram and there are on/off buttons on the left to choose which services you want to see photos from. The location of the images is discovered by looking at the location information stored in them or even by looking for landmarks.

Down the right hand side are some larger thumbnail images and you can browse the photos by clicking these instead of the pins on the map. When one is clicked, the map zooms in to the location to give you a detailed view.

It depends on which service the photo came from, but with some you can click the photographer's name to see more of their images.

There are buttons to add photos to your favourites and you can share your finds with others using the Windows 8 sharing facilities - the People app and Twitter if it's installed.

Photowhirl is an interesting way to explore maps and see photos from around the world. You might even find photos taken close to home. I found some taken only a couple of hundred yards away. I never realised the area would look so good in a photograph and the photographer caught it in just the right light and just the right time of year. It's a great app and well worth adding to your collection.