In my haste I completely missed Google’s massive efforts with Map Maker. Brady Forrest‘s excellent GeoData Explorations write-up over at O’Reilly Radar reminded me to dig deeper and give credit where credit is due. Part 1 covers Google’s Map Maker efforts while Part 2 covers Open Street Map and all that they have accomplished.
This morning Alanna Twittered about Ethan Zuckerman’s post concerning MSF’s Top Ten Humanitarian Crises of 2008. That got me thinking about Goma and what kind of map data is available to those folks now in the field. Rather than review the existing Google Map for that location (which is woefully pathetic) I tried out Map Maker and was amazed by the incredibly detailed map currently available:
Compare that to Open Street Map and the difference is clear:
I may have been overly critical of Google and their efforts in my previous posts but it is still true that Map Maker does not cover Afghanistan, Iraq and Georgia. I don’t have to plow through the other top ten but maybe some of you can let me know if you see major differences. Nice job, Google.
