Map Makers and People Finders

Everyone uses Google Maps: we realized (even more) how good it is after the disaster that was Apple Maps. In the US, of course, Google uses its famous self-driven cars to go around places and collect data to populate the Maps and Street View databases. But in places like India?  Jessica Pfund, Google’s Maps Product Manager, said:
“We couldn’t buy maps in India. It wasn’t a question of money; there were just no maps to buy… Naturally, our engineers (in India) really wanted their hometowns to appear on the map.”
Which is why came up with Google Map Maker, an online tool to allow users to fill in maps with landmarks and details. This was way back in 2008 and India was among the first countries where it was launched (It was launched in the US in 2011 and in the UK only a few months back! Well ok, in those countries the maps were already so good, but still…). It works Wikipedia style, with users correcting other users.

But do Indians actually fill in such maps? Do enough of us do voluntary work like this without reward or recognition? On a scale to draw the map of the country? I couldn’t find the stats on that; but Google’s maps are damned good for India…we pretty much navigated using only that through the small towns between Bangalore and Pondicherry. Hell, we could even pick the restaurant we wanted to eat at using the map!


What I do know is that Indians did fill in such maps for Google in, hold your breath, Afghanistan! Well, at least Kabul. Here are the before and after maps (from a WSJ article):

Maybe enough of us do voluntary work, after all.

Which is why I am hopeful that enough will fill in data to Google’s Person Finder site for the Uttarakhand flood disaster. The idea is that people on the ground (search & rescue operators, people in the area, NGO’s, the media etc) fill in whatever info they have about individuals (name, age, place of residence etc) at the site. And the others can then query this database for info about the people they are looking for. Or they could query by sending an SMS to Google’s number (mentioned at the site). Or register for updates about specific people.

This feature was launched in the US earlier and it’s good to see Google launch it in India as well. Oh, in case you were wondering why the government can’t do something like this, it’s because setting up the servers and software would take time. Google, on the other hand, is the king of databases and search.

So much for that view of corporations always being evil…contrast that with the folks who are fleecing stranded people with exorbitant rates for meals, biscuits and water…makes you think, doesn’t it?

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