Press Release MyGreatBelgium

Heart of the European Union and home of Flanders & Wallonia - MyGreatWorld’s Free Photo-Community for Belgium

Tourists have long ago discovered the cultural riches and original hospitality making Belgium a perfect country for families as well as for backpackers who often praise the open-hearted cordiality of the Belgian and their unsurpassed passion for strong and spicy beer in the same breath.

Geographically divided into the Anglo-Belgian Basin, the Paris Basin and the Hercynian Orogenic Belt, Belgium offers scenic variety and natural beauty to visitors and travellers from around the world.

Whatever the reason for a visit to Belgium, photos & information from residents and those who know the spot are always welcome, both, to make the best out of a trip and not to miss the secret beauty every location holds: What's worth visiting in Brussels? Where to stay in Ghent? What to do in Liege? What to avoid in La Roche? Users may depict their recommendations on MyGreatBelgium.com - For tourists. For residents. For friends. Worldwide.

The change of Belgium over the centuries and even over the last decades and years is sometimes subtle (and sometimes not). It becomes obvious by comparing the chronological advancement in housing and construction and the varying styles in design and architecture. The further an observer is travelling back in time the more evident growth and progress become.

Combining these different approaches (to a vast mass of digital photography laying dormant on harddrives around the globe), www.MyGreatBelgium.com opens up its services to the community these days to build an online-database of literally any spot in this country. Even the very streets users are living in are subject to continuous changes - and to make these trends visible is one of the goals of the site.

Uploading photos to MyGreatBelgium is map-based, fast and easy allowing the user to add new spots to the database (cities, points of interest, landscapes) on the fly. To make the database work, users are asked for the time (year or even better: year & month) and a category their picture fits in best. Any further description a user enters will be additionally indexed for key-words. The same goes for the photo's title. Structures and designs are straightforward and comprehensible without popup-windows or superfluous gadgets.

Is there a typical architecture in a town? Which hotel is it advisable to stay in? What's a commendable cafe, a museum worth seeing or a beautiful landscape in a spot? The photos might also depict details of a (not) recommendable archaeological site, a folkloristic event, an interesting building or even ‘just’ the own road for those fortunates living in Belgium.
Users are invited to give a helping hand and insider-guide to future visitors - and maybe even an eye-opener to residents living nearby.

Retrieving information from the database demonstrates that the MyGreatWorld-Project offers more than a mere pool of pretty pictures: The Advanced Search allows for combinations of various search-parameters including the time of the capture, the motive, the spot, key-words in title or description and even the filtering for a certain photographer.

Users find at all the sites of MyGreatWorld.com a solid framework to enrich with their photos, recommendations and opinions. The site is a young project and there is a lot of space yet to be filled. This also means users can still be the first to add a new spot and to present the flair of a place to the world, the ambassador for a town, landscape or favourite point of interest.

"The site lives from the users' engagement and from the belief that on an international level there are no 'boring' or unspectacular photos: The world in all its facets is very well worth seeing and what's 'interesting' is in the eye of the beholder..."

Descriptions are fine. But hand in hand with pictures, they are better. And at MyGreatWorld.com users might use the combination of both.