Workings of Google Map Maker

I was pleasantly surprised that there are more and more takers for Google Map Maker. The tool which is totally dependent on online technology and enthusiast contributions for building comprehensive maps. This idea a decade ago would have been difficult to even imagine ;). The Time lapse video of Madurai , India, sumps up the map making effort very effectively.



I enrolled myself as a member of the Map maker community and I see that this community is buzzing with activity. I congratulate the group in Google which is spearheading this initiative; it’s doing this job with an evangelical fervor. I see that several techniques are being tried out to validate the information provided by the community, which I think is the overriding reservation raised by sections of the mapping community against community map building. I have no doubt to say that validation techniques will get matured over a period of time and the community mapping will surely be one of the ways of building maps.


Surprisingly Pakistan cities are being rapidly updated by the community, how on earth can we imagine that we have an accurate digital map of a Pakistan city; this was only possible through the community initiative. I am sure, Pakistan will not be attractive for some more years for any global map maker ( TeleAtlas/Navteq ). At least, now, Pakistan will have an accurate online world class map which can be used by the community at large.