digiKam offers several ways to showcase your photos. You can view images as a slideshow, push them to a photo sharing service of your choice, and even export them as a static HTML gallery. But that’s not all; digiKam can output selected photos as a KML bundle, so you can view your snaps on the Google Maps service and the Google Earth application.

To perform its magic, digiKam relies on the KML Export plugin. If you don’t see the Export to KML command in the Export menu, then you have to enable the plugin. To do this, choose Settings → Configure digiKam, switch to the Kipi Plugins section, enable the KMLExport plugin, and press OK. Select then the photos you want to export, and choose the Export → Export to KML command to open the KML Export dialog window. In the Target Type section, select Google Earth or Google Maps as the target. In the Destination Directory field, enter the path to a directory for digiKam to save the exported images and .kml file. Use the Filename field to enter a name for the .kml file (e.g., index or default). If you export your photos for use with Google Maps, you will need to upload the generated images and the .kml file to a web server, and enter its URL in the Destination URL field. In the Sizes section, specify the icon size (if you have chosen Google Earth as the target) and image size in the appropriate fields. If you have a GPX file to go with the photos, enable the Draw GPX Track option and specify the available options to show the track on the map. Hit the OK button and wait till digiKam finishes the export. To view the exported photos in Google Earth, drag and drop the .kml file onto the globe. If you exported photos for use with Google Maps, upload the .kml file and the exported images to your web server, point the browser to maps.google.com, enter the exact path to the .kml file (e.g., http://dmpop.homelinux.com/kml/index.kml) in the Search field, and press the Search Maps button. You should then see all your exported photos mapped on Google Maps.