Google announced this morning that it is taking down Panoramio’s iPhone uploader app and geotagging with Google Latitude feature.

Panoramio is the Google service, which lets users upload photos for use in Google Maps and Google Earth layers.

“We have experimented a lot in Panoramio along 2010 and 2011, and thanks to the Panoramio Community we have learned a lot about the geotagging and in general about how a product needs to be shaped to build an amazing community like ours,” says Panoramio community manager Gerard Sanz. “We started a strong 2012 with many new features such as the new uploader and a new way to explore photos in Panoramio, and we have a long way to go this year with lots of surprises that we are finalizing to make Panoramio the best geotagging community in the world.”

“While innovation is important, it is also important to stay focused, and it is with this aim that we are announcing now that we are removing two features from Panoramio that were used infrequently so we can direct our energies to those features that are used the most and to new features that we are developing at the moment,” Sanz adds.

The iPhone uploader was announced in the fall of 2009. At the time, Google deemed the launch the “a first step” toward making it possible to share photos via Google Maps and Google Earth from an iPhone.

The Google Latitude geotagging feature was only launched last year, though it was launched before Google+, which has of course become Google’s “social spine,” as CEO Larry Page says. Google+ also happens to be Google’s photography hub these days, and this is no doubt being taken into consideration here, even if Google+ is not mentioned in the announcement.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see more Google+ integration with Google Maps and Google Earth in the near future.

The “new uploader,” Sanz refers to, already lets you upload photos from Google+ (and Picasa Web albums, which are already integrated with one another) into Panoramio, for use in Google Earth and Google Maps.