GPS kits are being sent to locals in India by Google, to enable them to make more detailed maps of their area. After all the data has been uploaded and verified it becomes a part of the map.
This news comes via a speech which Michael T. Jones (CTO, Google Earth) gave at the Cambridge Conference. Dan Karran has transcribed an audio recording of the speech and here’s the most relevant portion of the transcript:
"This is Hyderabad, and if you see the dark areas, those correspond to roads in low detail. If you zoom in, you’ll see the roads, and if you expand a little bit, you’ll see both roads and labelled places…there’s graveyards, and some roads and so forth.
Now, everything you see here was created by people in Hyderabad. We have a pilot program running in India. We’ve done about 50 cities now, in their completeness, with driving directions and everything – completely done by having locals use some software we haven’t released publicly to draw their city on top of our photo imagery.
So we’re building a little care package we can send to countries like Togo, and say if you want to have maps of your country, you may not have a national mapping agency of any merit, but if you have some inspired amateurs, you can map out your country. Fill out all the details and then you can do routing and navigation just like in the big countries."
It is great to see Google including user-generated content when it comes to mapping data and am sure Microsoft and MapMyIndia would be looking keenly at this. MapMyIndia is run by CE Infosystems and these guys received an undisclosed amount of funding from Kleiner Perkins and Sherpalo Ventures earlier this year.
Usage of GPS is in its infancy in India. Recently Airtel made GPS service available on certain phones. This was via Wayfinder – who in turn had a partnership with MapMyIndia.
Google Maps and other mapping services are still to see heavy usage in India. You’d hardly see any Mash-Ups being made using Google Maps.
Managed to find a list of some Desi Map Mashups here..
Some pretty neat stuff.
But since Google shares its Mapping Application Programming Interface – one would expect more such stuff being churned and served up by our tech-savvy net junta.
I know a guy who is working on a – Google Maps Mash-up for local events and parties in Mumbai. Which is a pretty interesting concept. Merging events and maps does make sense.
One Mash-up with maps which I definitely wouldn’t mind seeing is something for Mumbai Bus Routes.
This is one of the best online services I’ve seen being provided by any Government run organization. It even provides maps for routes etc…
But it lacks the finesse and execution.
All the information is pretty much up there and any one who is willing to give it a shot can go ahead.
Eklavya,
We use a Google map mashup to display locations of businesses for Chennai and Hyderabad on tolmolbol.com. Just switch your city to either of these cities and do a search for say pizza or click on a category name. Here's one more thing. If you are adding a new listing in these cities, you could specify the location of the business as well.
If you'd like to send us your feedback (mail id: feedback[at]tolmolbol.com), we'd be really grateful. BTW, Mumbai maps should be coming soon.
Rithesh – tolmolbol.com
@ Rithesh:
Pretty neat stuff….what would be cooler would be allowing users to add/edit stuff and add real life pics etc. Perhaps that'll happen when a service gets really popular…or via some guerilla marketing! User generated contests won't work at an early stage though.
I'm sure you are wishing for your Dude/tte contest to go viral!
Cheers!
Eklavya,
Thanks for the feedback and the suggestions. It means a lot to us
Rithesh
There is also Mumbai Navigator (http://www.cse.iitb.ac.in/navigator/index.html), for buses as well as trains. They too have a with-maps (http://www.cse.iitb.ac.in/navigator2_gis/Main) option which is a mashup with Google Maps.