Grand Rapids skyline, photo by sparky05.

Web technology like tagging and social networks are increasing our ability to relate our photos to real world data and to relate to each other through our photos.

A great example of this can be found in the ways in which photos of Grand Rapids are woven together. Using Flickr, you can assign locations to your photos. Here’s a photo map of downtown Grand Rapids featurign pictures taken by Sparky and others.

Maps aren’t the only way to connect with photographers (and photographs) of Grand Rapids. Check out the Grand Rapids, Michigan Group on Flickr. Two other good spots are the Grand Rapids Photo Blog and the Grand Rapids forum on UrbanPlanet.org.

Building buffs will also want to head over to the Skyscraper Page for buildings of Grand Rapids. It gives details of all the buildings (including those under construction), drawings of the individual buildings and a lineup of Grand Rapids buildings by height.

All of this may seem like overkill, but consider how incredibly useful this might be to a company that was scouting Grand Rapids (or your city) as a potential location.