How to Find Geotagged Videos on YouTube
If you’re into OSINT (Open-Source Intelligence), one of the most valuable things you can dig up is geotagged video footage. Why? Because location-based videos can help verify when and where something really happened which is crucial when investigating conflicts, crimes, or incidents that need evidence.
Think about recent events like the Mariupol theatre bombing, the Bucha massacre, or missile strikes on train stations. News reports only tell part of the story. To really understand what happened, analysts often turn to user-uploaded content on platforms like YouTube. The tricky part is finding the right videos in the sea of uploads. That’s where geotagging comes in.
What is Geotagging?
When someone uploads a YouTube video, they can tag the location where it was filmed. This tag shows up above the video title and links to a location. For example, a video from Kharkiv, Ukraine, might be tagged as “Kharkiv”/“Харків” but here’s the catch: people can label the same location differently (different spellings, different languages, nearby towns). So searching just by keyword often misses important footage.
The Tool: YouTube Geofind
https://mattw.io/youtube-geofind/location
To get around this problem, there’s a free tool called YouTube Geofind (created by Matthew Wright). Instead of relying on text tags, it lets you search for videos directly by coordinates and radius on a map.
You could:
- Enter the coordinates of their last known position.
- Set a radius
- Narrow the timeframe
With this setup, the tool would pull in all the geotagged videos from that area and period.
One important tip: the tool only shows up to 250 results per search. If your search area or timeframe is too broad, you’ll miss videos.
Realistic Example for Everyday Use
Disaster response: After an earthquake, you could use Geofind to pull up videos from within 5km of the epicenter to check real damage before aid arrives.
Local events: If you’re researching protests in Paris, you could filter only videos geotagged around Place de la République during a specific week.
Travel research: Curious what’s really happening in a tourist spot? Search recent geotagged videos from that location to see current conditions, not polished travel vlogs.
Final Thoughts
Geotagged videos are a goldmine for analysts, journalists, or even curious researchers. Instead of wasting hours on random keyword searches, tools like YouTube Geofind make the process faster, more accurate, and much more reliable.