Google achieves 100 per cent mapping target for Nigeria, others

::::SEARCH giant, Google has announced that it has achieved 100 per cent target in the
area of mapping for Nigeria and other African countries.
Wikipedia defines mapping as map-making and often used instead of cartography,
stressing that mapping term is also sometimes used for geospatial data collection.
The 100 per cent mapping achievement was disclosed by Google officials at the
Regional Conference for super mappers across Africa, which kicked off in Lagos at
the weekend, stressing that 100 per cent of Africa was now available on Google Map
Maker.
Besides, the event was organised to celebrate the contributions of Google Map Maker
users from around Nigeria and other parts of Africa in their geographic crowd-
sourcing efforts.
Speaking at the event, Google Africa Lead Africa Community Manager, Mr. Evans
Arabu said, “regional conferences are a chance for volunteer mappers, community
leaders, and Google team members to meet each other and discuss how to
strengthen the mapping communities in their neighborhood. We’re thrilled to see
that the mapping efforts in Africa have been greatly supported by citizen
cartographers from many different parts of the country.”
Announced at the event was the recent addition of Lesotho as a country open for
editing via Google Map Maker, which makes 100 per cent of Africa now available
through this community mapping tool. The search giant also informed of the ongoing
mapping initiative for all university campuses in sub-Saharan Africa.
Arabu said a number of universities had already been mapped including University of
Lagos, University of Ibadan, Benson Idahosa University (BIU) and Ahmadu Bello
university in Nigeria as well as many more across Africa.
According to him, “Google Map Maker allows you to add and update geographic
information for millions of users to see in Google Maps and Google Earth. By sharing
information about the places you know, like businesses in your town or building
names on your school campus, you can ensure that the map accurately reflects the
world around you.”
Indeed, the Senior Product Manager, Google Map Maker, Mr. Jayanth Mysore, noted
that three areas were critical to the mapping exercise, which include
comprehensiveness of the information provided, its accuracy and speed of search for
users.
“Your updates will be reviewed, and once approved, will appear online for people
from all over the world to see. You can use Map Maker to make updates and improve
the comprehensiveness of the areas you are familiar with in more than 200 countries
and regions worldwide,” he said.