Your digital camera is a diligent archivist. Each time it captures an image, it records the time that the photo was taken and the settings that were used - details you can employ later to track down a photo in your collection. For most of us, though, it's easier to remember where we took a picture than it is to remember when. Although most digital cameras don't possess this sort of location awareness (one exception is the camera built into Apple's iPhone 3G), you can easily embed the coordinates after the fact through a process called geotagging.

Geotagged images give you a new way to sort and organize your photos. For example, you can search for pictures shot in a particular locale or create an interactive map of your latest vacation. But before you can take advantage of any of these features, you have to get your images tagged. Fortunately, there are now several Mac tools that can get the job done (for GPS devices that can make the process even easier, see "Geotagging Hardware").