Google Mapmaker - Map your locality
In countries like India, great maps and comprehensive local data are hard to come by. And traditional mapping approaches are stretched to the limit in such environments, where infrastructure and local businesses are evolving at a furious pace.
This need inspired us in Google India to design and build Google Map Maker, which enables users everywhere over to create rich, deep maps and fresh local data. People can mark their favorite spots in their cities and hometowns, add features such as roads, parks, and buildings, tag small businesses to help users find them, and collaborate to map neighborhoods of interest. This product is motivated by the spirit of information democracy, where people can create information that are moderated and consumed by their peers. By Lalitesh Katragadda, Software Engineer and creator, Google Map Maker in Offcial Google Blog.
Source : Official Google Blog http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/empowering-users-to-map-their-worlds.html
Google Mapmaker was launched in India in August and since then like other google products has been very popular. Google map is the creation of Google India based in Bangalore. Google Map maker is a way to add or edit features, such as roads, businesses, parks, schools, and place them on a map. After submitting the information, it will be available at the Map Maker sites for other users to edit it and you could expect to see it live in Google Maps when Google decides there’s enough information.
Google recommends to use the hybrid view to locate places precisely and to zoom in to a range of 50m to 1km. You can add businesses using placemarks, mark roads with the line tool and add parks using polygons.
The data used in Google Maps is sourced from NAVTEQ and Tele Atlas, two big mapping companies. They, in turn, have obtained some of this data from national mapping agencies (such as the Ordnance Survey). Since they’ve made multi-million pound investments in gathering this data, these organizations are understandably protective of their copyright.”
Visit Google Mapmaker : http://www.google.com/mapmaker
