MapMyIndia June 7, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Maps , add a commentMapMyIndia portal was launched in late 2004 as an interactive map website for India. I mistakingly promoted SatNav Technologies as the pioneer GIS data company in my earlier post, but it seems like the ‘pioneer’ title should go to CE Info Systems Pvt. Ltd., the parent company of MapMyIndia.
CE Info Systems is based out of Delhi since 1991, focusing on creation of detailed GIS data sets for India. They boast about being the largest repository of digital maps and data in the country and offer services to several big clients like Birla Group, Nokia, Mahangar Gas, MCD, Zee TV, L&T, Qualcomm, etc. in various verticals.
MapMyIndia content shows the rich heritage, of course. The free
service has a searchable database of 170 cities, 4,785 towns and 2.2 lakh villages in India. Although the website has some annoying flashing graphics with a slightly cramped look, what blows my mind away is that they give step-by-step directions with total distance!!! 
Un-freakin’-believable!!! I tried the directions from Vasant Kunj to Connaught Place and they were awesome. In fact, Greater Kailash to Bihar also made sense (although I cant verify that, obviously). This kind of in-depth dataset can be the backbone for numerous future ebusiness models, no doubt.
They have a mobile search page too. So mobile search too has arrived in India. The website also talks about local search and ‘eLocation’ (you can tell others where you are located). U-n-b-e-l-i-e-v-a-b-l-e. I’m still reeling from the step-by-step direction functionality.
RoadsofIndia June 6, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Maps , 1 comment so farOnline maps and navigation has made its way to our favorite subcontinent (finally). RoadsofIndia is a portal that can give you directional information within 23 major Indian cities. Before you get all excited, know that these directions are only limited to preconfigured landmark lists for now. So you can pick a bank or hospital as origin and get directions to a railway station or shopping center. Since I’m a Delhi native, I checked out the list for delhi and it looked pretty loaded… and useful. The site is free, fyi.
RoadsofIndia has apparently been in existence since 2000, and is run by SatNav Technologies, which was spun off from IT giant Satyam Computer Services Ltd in early 2004. SatNav focuses on GIS products and technologies.
If you have recently checked out Google Maps for indian locations, then you know it’s better than what it was couple years ago. But what is worth noting now is that Yahoo! India Maps shows the additional ability to execute plenty of relevant keyword searches too. Not just “Connaught Place, Delhi” but “New Patel Nagar, New Delhi” showed the exact map location along with landmarks like Delhi Metro stops, ATM’s etc. !!. (Okay… Okay… I didn’t search anything but Delhi landmarks. But if you do, let me know the results)
Yahoo! India Maps are much better if you want local maps in India. What I found out was that MSN and Yahoo! India have licenced content from RoadsofIndia. So the credit still goes to SatNav. I guess what NavTeq did for North America, SatNav is positioned to do for India. The day is not far when mobile maps become a reality for the Indian road warriors.
Edit: Geez, it doesn’t take long before someone points out your mistake on a blog post. In less than 12 hours of my posting the info above, I stand corrected. Apparently SatNav is not the company behind Yahoo! India Maps. It’s CE Info Systems Pvt. Ltd. They are a old Indian player in the GIS space, and you can read more about them in my post here.