What do you get when you combine a team of computer scientists at Cornell and 35 million Flickr photos? An ambitious world map that pinpoints -– via geo-tagged data on the snapshots –- the most-photographed places on the planet.
We’re not surprised to learn that New York City is photographed more often than any other city (London takes second place), but it’s in the breakdown of what exactly people are snapping pictures of in Gotham where things get weird. At No. 1, the Empire State Building, at No. 2, Times Square… and at No. 5, the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue. Sorry, Lady Liberty, you’re apparently way less interesting than a giant glass cube filled with the same products you find at every suburban mall in America.
For a double dose of hilarity, Newyorkology points out that the second most-photographed locale in Las Vegas is the New York New York Hotel and Casino.
So what have we learned? New York is really photogenic, Flickr is a magnet for Apple geeks, and Germans love… well, you know.
