Revealed: Felines of the Richmond District thanks to geotagged cat pic project

A new website called “I Know Where Your Cat Lives” sounds creepier than it really is. In fact it’s pretty entertaining.

Site founder Owen Mundy decided to make something from the millions of geotagged images that are uploaded to popular photo sharing sites like Instagram and Flickr, and are then given the keyword/hashtag “cat”.

The end result is a map of the world with fetching felines dotted throughout. Pics of cats lounging, cats cleaning themselves in the sun, playing with funny objects, nuzzled up next to their owners, or giving their typical “like I care” stare at the camera. The “random cat” button in the interface will steal minutes from your day.

Within San Francisco, the project managed to pinpoint quite a few cats in the Richmond District. Some of our own readers might find their furry companion on the map. There’s even one cute guy that apparently lives off the coast at Lands End. Swimming cat?

Mundy started the site as an experiment, choosing 1 million images at random to initially map. The geographical metadata within each image allows pinpointing to within 7.8 meters accuracy.

Now Mundy is trying to raise $2,500 via a Kickstarter campaign to help with server costs to expand the project (and handle its mounting traffic, this is serious cat porn, people).

So don’t be surprised if some kitty celebrities emerge after this kind of exposure, or if you start recognizing some of your feline neighbors as they pass on the street. If you want to get your cat in on the action, start shooting and taggin’!

Meow.

Sarah B.