On tuesday I had the rare opportunity courtesy of Chris Kiagiri, Technical Lead at Google Kenya to have a sneak peek at the upcoming enhanced google mpas for east africa and let me say it was truly awesome. The amount of detail in this new version is quite amazing, a quick look at the nairobi map goes as far down as streets, buildings (building name and icon) and even adds information to indicate if the street is one way or two way. The enhanced maps currently cover major cities and towns in East Africa including Nairobi, Mombasa, Nakuru, and Dar es Salaam.
Another interesting service I happened to see was the Location based service that integrates google maps with Safaricom to show you where you are on the map based on your mobile phone. I think this service is quite promising and there are different services such map direction services, amenity location services that can leverage this technology.
I mentioned in an earlier post here that with this new map the mashup wars can finally begin, well the starting shot has been fired, may the best man or woman win.
To learn more about this author, visit John Wesonga's Website.
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John Wesonga
(Visit John's Website)
Born in Nairobi, Kenya, John Wesonga is a
partner and the Technology Director of Mul
tiple Choices, a communications
company that builds web 2.0 applications
for the Internet and provides strategic
advice on Online Brands. His interests
include: web development, blogging, mobile
technology, Africa, and Kenya. His blog,
Afropreneur, is one of the most
popular online resources for news
regarding business and technology in
Africa. He is also currently a student at
Strathmore University, where he is
pursuing a degree in Business Information
Technology.
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Impressive stuff on IT growth in the Middle East & North Africa, all contained in a new IDC report:
