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Google Maps, Local Expand To UK
Koushiro writes "From Google's official blog comes word that Google Maps UK and Google Local UK have been launched, confirming speculations that the search engine giant would continue to expand its regional services to an international audience. The seemingly logical next step, of course, would be to expand coverage to Western Europe, but given the input Google's UK office had into this project, can we expect Google Maps India next?"
"expand its regional services to an international audience" Canada isn't the U.S. you know.
Ludwig Wittgenstein
In the UK, most maps use the British Grid projection. Google, in their international wisdom, appear to have used a different projection which causes the map to "appear wrong" to a UK person. Actually, the map is perfectly correct, it's just that Google are presenting it in a way which is not customary for the UK.
For example, try a search for postcode "EH1" on http://maps.google.co.uk, and the same on www.multimap.co.uk. Notice that the shape of the quarter-circle road system (Princes St, Melville Drive, the Bridges) is different on each.
But IIRC, (part of) Ireland is in the UK. Doesn't UK stand for "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland"?
Bugger me. Well, that's the end of the great British pub quiz, then... I think we have to just accept it now. Google is on course to evolve into an Overmind and rule the world. Suddenly I've got an information source in my pocket that makes the Hitch Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy look feeble...
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
The main problem with starting a service like this in India would be keeping it up to date. Have you seen the latest Eicher and TTK maps? Most of them are, at least, 3 years outdated. Even those of the cities.
:(
75% of the country is rural, so the high level of detail is quite impossible. Most cities are under construction all the time, so details keep changing. Been to hyderabad lately? Those guys are going crazy with flyovers. It's not just minor roads either. National Highways (B'lore-Hyd, NH4 I think) are still being constructed. Main roads in the cities keep getting rerouted.
Besides, there would be no demand for it for maybe 3-4 years more. Internet penetration isn't really that high
And this is just from my knowledge as a college guy who doesn't travel much. Regular travellers I know tell me that roads keep changing all the time. I don't see this happening very soon.
I just tried sending them some feedback but pressing submit gave me "Illegal Request: your client sent an illegal request". Aaargghh. But so the typing is not completely wasted, here are my suggestions:
Dear Google,
Thanks for adding UK maps to google maps.
Your user interface is excellent, but I have a few suggestions for how other aspects of the system can be improved to match this quality:
1. Please display the scale of the maps.
2. Please show railway lines. (I know that where you come from, everyone has a car. Here in Europe trains are the main method of long-distance travel for very many people.) Oh, I've noticed that you do show railways but only when you're zoomed in a lot. That's no good, here's way: say I am staying with my sister in Nettlecombe, Dorset (look it up!) and I want to know where the nearest railway stations are. So I view Nettlecombe and zoom out step by step. But by the time I am looking at an area large enough to show the stations in Axminster (to the West) and Dorchester (to the East), you have stopped showing railways! You also need to add the stations themselves.
3. Please can we have metric units in the directions?
4. In your driving directions, roundabouts ("traffic circles", I think, is the American expression) are described in an odd way. Your software does at least know which side of the road we drive on here! But at a roundabout with four roads where I have to turn right, i.e. I need to go 270 degrees round, it says "turn left, go 0.1 miles, turn left". It would be far better to say just "turn right" or "take the third exit".
5. You should show junction numbers on motorways, and use them in directions, e.g. "continue along M3 for 38km to junction 4". This is the main way in which people describe motorway journeys (e.g. radio traffic news - "accident between junctions 6 and 7") and the junction numbers are displayed very prominantly on signs.
6. There is more to life than roads. Have a look at the maps used on multimap.co.uk when the scale is 1:25,000 (but not at any other scale). I use these maps to plan my hiking trips. In fact, this is probably my main use for online maps.
The point being, I'd disagree with the notion that India is not ready for Google Maps. On the contrary, I think countries like India are a perfect market for a web-based satellite atlas that Google Maps effectively is.
More than mere navel gazing.