Geotagging with Google plugin. Does it work?

Question

I've just bought a little gps receiver, and I'm trying to geotag some pix. I've loaded up the Google LR geotagger plugin (http://code.google.com/p/geotag-lightroom-plugin/), and I have a gpx file with the coordinates. I tell it to geotag the photos, but I don't see the lat/long anywhere in the metadata. I've tried it both with "update originals" unchecked, and with it checked. In either case, nothing happens.
My originals are raw .nef files. Can the plugin (using exiftools) update those? I haven't been converting to dng, but maybe this is the kick in the pants that I need to do that.
Where should I see the gps coordinates in LR? Looking at some of the screen shots, it looks like there's a gps line, immediately after the lens line in the exif metadata. My metadata doesn't show that line at all.
Any help is greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

My Geosetter workflow is as follows, which is from LR 1.x days, though I now use LR 2.1:
1) Import photos into LR (auto XMP writing is turned off)
2) Use Geosetter to create XMP files with GPS information from the GPX file or by hand using the build-in map. I can work with the photos in LR while I wait for Geosetter to finish. I have Geosetter set up to add GPS information into the RAWs, themselves, along with creating an XMP sidecar. You can have it create backups of the RAWs as its adding the GPS information if you're afraid of corruption, but I eventually turned this off after nothing has ever happened and it was taking twice as much space.
3) After Geosetter is finished, in LR use Select-All and Write Metadata to Files... for all the photos I just geotagged. LR adds its tags to the XMPs that Geosetter has just created.
4) Use Select-All and Read Metadata from Files... for all photos just geotagged. LR reads its metadata plus the GPS tags that Geosetter created.
It is possible to geotag before importing into LR and then the GPS data will be there when you import, initially but I found that it takes minutes per photo to import when I do this, so I quit doing it, and besides I want to see and work with my photos while Geosetter is slowing embedding data into them--which takes a while because they are 15-20MB RAWs at several-seconds per file with EXIFtool doing the work.
The unbearable slowness is due to something wrong with my system, I think -- too old among other things, so just do the Geotagging after I import and do the write/read metadata and it works ok. There will be a temporary metadata-is-out-of-sync indication on the photos as Geosetter is creating the XMP but it resolves itself when you do the write then read of the metadata.
It can be slow to both write and read the metadata while the photos My Geosetter workflow is as follows, which is from LR 1.x days:
1) Import photos into LR (auto XMP writing is turned off)
2) Use Geosetter to create XMP files with GPS information from the GPX file or by hand using the build-in map. I can work with the photos in LR while I wait for Geosetter to finish.
3) Use Select-All and Write Metadata to Files... for all the photos I just geotagged. (LR adds its tags to the XMPs that Geosetter has just created)
4) Use Select-All and Read Metadata from Files... for all photos just geotagged. (LR reads its metadata plus the GPS tags that Geosetter created)
It is possible to geotag before importing into LR and then the GPS data will be there when you import, initially but I found that it takes minutes per photo to import when I do this, so I quit. There is something wrong with my system, I think -- too old among other things, so just do the geotagging after I import and it works ok. There will be a temporary metadata-is-out-of-sync indication on the photos as Geosetter is creating the XMP but it resolves itself when you do the write then read of the metadata.
My system is slow so it is faster if I select some other small directory of photos or an empty quick-collection while writing then reading the metadata, otherwise the thumbnails get updated as the metadata is being read and slows things down. On a newer, multicore system, which mine isn't, it may work just fine to have the metadata updating the visible set of thumbnails, but it's too slow on mine.