Press Release MyGreatTanzania

Mountainous, unfolding and packed with Wildlife, Tanzania has become a major tourist-destination. Centuries of migration and European Colonialism have left overwhelming cultural riches, forming the compelling background for inspiring photos. Aiming to document every notable location in Tanzania, users around the world are now invited to contribute their captures and impressions and to describe them to the community.

Tanzania has politically as well as economically developed significantly within the last decade. Blessed with a border to the Indian Ocean and some of the oldest human settlements on earth the country offers vast riches to the visitor.

Whatever the reason for a visit to Tanzania, 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 Dodoma? Where to stay at Lake Victoria? What to do in Dar Es Salaam? What to avoid on Zanzibar? Users may depict their recommendations on MyGreatTanzania.com - For tourists. For residents. For friends. Worldwide.

The change of Tanzania and its neighbouring states, as they appear today, 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. This might be fortunate -- but it is not by default.

Combining these different approaches (to a vast mass of digital photography laying dormant on harddrives around the globe), www.MyGreatTanzania.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 MyGreatTanzania 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 Tanzania.
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 MyGreatWorld.com 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 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.