1. A graphic user interface for querying a database of media that is tagged with geographic location information and displaying the query results, comprising: interchangeable panels that are used for determining query constraints and viewing query results of a database of media that is tagged with geographic location information, the interchangeable panels comprise one or more constraint panels and one or more display panels; and media dots that are aligned with a grid that encompasses the geographic location information of the media in the database, wherein each of said media dots has a size that varies as a function of a number of media items represented by the media dot, such that each media dot indicates how many media are associated with a grid location on the map, wherein a display panel can be one of: a full view panel that brings a database item to full view at a high resolution; a list panel that shows the results of a database guery as a list of small thumbnails; and a preview panel that shows a preview of a single database item together with a textual display of the database item's properties.
5. The graphics user interface of claim 1 wherein the display panels show the results a database query that is jointly specified by one or more constraint panels.