Google Opens Mapmaker for Pakistan

One of our dear alum from GIKI currently at Google writes to our Alumni mailing list about a very significant development for Pakistan from Google:

Here’s a direct exerpt from Zia Syed’s email:

AoA Everyone, Google has enabled map editing features in a wiki like fashion to Pakistan. Anyone with a Google Account can add roads, landmarks etc. to the map and moderate the entries made by other people e.g. I just entered a portion of Main Boulevard in Gulberg, Lahore:

http://www.google.com/mapmaker?gw=10&ll=31.518099,74.341822&spn=0.028426,0.067635&t=h&z=15

So please spread the word around and add features to the map and let’s try to make it as comprehensive as we can. Just look at the level of details in the neighboring countries i.e. Iran and India to get an idea about what can be done using this feature.

For getting stared please view this:

http://www.google.com/mapmaker/mapfiles/s/support.html

Please follow the link to Pakistan’s mapmaker wiki page and discussion thread from here:

http://sites.google.com/site/mapmakeruserhelp/user-guide/editable-regions

Google currently only has allowed the following territories for map editing:

• Antigua and Barbuda
• Bahamas
• Barbados
• Bermuda
• British Virgin Islands
• Cayman Islands
• Cyprus
• Grenada
• Iceland
• Jamaica
• Netherlands Antilles
• Pakistan
• St. Kitts and Nevis
• St. Lucia
• St. Vincent and the Grenadines
• Trinidad and Tobago
• Vietnam

Pakistan has been late into the whole mapping field. Despite a number of local startups in the field, there hasn’t been any significant breakthrough. Though external sites like OpenStreetMaps show promise, this move by Google will truly open up a whole new area of location based services and bring them to the next level. Imagine being able to access full maps on your cellphone, on an Android application, Location Based Services, local business search etc.

In order for this to be work, we will have to contribute to it as much as with our collective knowledge. Use your Google Account to log into google.com/mapmaker, you will see an interface very similar to Google Maps with added controls to find and add features. You can add features such as Placemarks (mark a location such as a business or school.); draw roads, rivers; draw regions to mark areas such as a park or neighborhoods. If you are planning to start work on Pakistan you may want to take a look at collaborators on Pakistan or just start editing Pakistan.

Happy editing!

Update: Here’s the official Google press release.

Update: It’s the labor of love from Google Bangalore, thanks guys and girls!