Google Maps Embraces More User-Generated Content - First-generation charts for 64 new countries and territories

URL: http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2009/05/27/google-maps-embraces-more-user-generated-content

By Doug Caverly
Wed, 05/27/2009 - 09:35

Three months ago, Google took a big step by "graduating" data on 16 countries from Google Map Maker to Google Maps. Now, comparatively speaking, the company's performed a long jump by following suit with another 64 countries and territories.

This move means that the maps are transitioning from a smallish, private sort of program into public view. It acts as a big endorsement of user-generated content, since regular users are indeed the source of all the geographic info. And they've contributed a whole lot.

Here's the official list of updated regions: American Samoa, Anguilla, Armenia, Aruba, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, BELIZE, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Comoros, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, El Salvador, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, and Guadeloupe.

Then there's Guinea, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Madagascar, Malawi, Martinique, Mauritania, Mongolia, Montserrat, Mozambique, Myanmar (Burma), Nauru, Netherlands Antilles, Niger, Nigeria, Niue, Northern Mariana Islands, Pakistan, Reunion, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, Togo, Tokelau, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Uzbekistan, Wallis and Futuna, and Zambia, too.

Neat, eh? It might soon run out of fresh countries to cover, but Google Map Maker is starting to look like an overwhelming success.