Maps Over the Last Decade

I remember this time over a decade back when we were returning home from Noida and I had to call out directions using (then the best map) Eicher Maps. One would have to do things like holding the map at a weird angle to align it with the direction you were travelling or risk mixing up your left and right turns.

Fast forward to today and pretty much everyone uses Google Maps. Speaking of which, I found this interview with Michael Jones of Google Maps revealing. When asked about the biggest change that’s happened to maps, he said:

“The major change in mapping in the past decade, as opposed to in the previous 6,000 to 10,000 years, is that mapping has become personal.

It's not the map itself that has changed. You would recognize a 1940 map and the latest, modern Google map as having almost the same look. But the old map was a fixed piece of paper, the same for everybody who looked at it. The new map is different for everyone who uses it...So a map has gone from a static, stylized portrait of the Earth to a dynamic, inter-active conversation about your use of the Earth.”

And that’s the “Big Change”, as Jones calls it. And that’s already happened. Then there’s Google Earth which people just use to see places, as timepass:

“..we made something immersive and engaging and personal”.

In fact, people have gotten so used to it that they now expect perfect maps and pictures. Most of us can relate to this part of the interview:

“"Why is that tree still there, even though we cut it down last year?" They're angry that it's not a perfect planetary mirror, when eight years ago only a few of us even imagined it was possible.”

Apple sure learnt that the hard way with their maps fiasco, didn’t they?

So what’s next? Well, that app on your smartphone could use your location (found via GPS) to:

“… search in a database of "interesting things," and it learns what kinds of things you care about”.

Another application of maps:

“…(instead of you looking at the map) the phone will signal you--go left or straight ahead--in words or sounds in your ear, or visually through your glasses, so you can just look where you're going and walk.”

Well, that’s not really futuristic, is it? Doesn’t Google Navigation already do that? Sure, but showing information on those glasses you wear? That bit is yet to come. Though Google does have prototypes ready.

And then there’s the hope that seeing beautiful images of the earth (Google’s Underwater Street View that shows reefs, seamounts, and other underwater features in the oceans) might trigger environmental activism:

“…this kind of understanding leads to activism, whether it's a passive activism of a vote or an active activism of changing your lifestyle to protect the world.”

Now who’d have thought maps could change the world?!