AOL has launched MapQuest in India, the first outside Europe. Based on OpenStreetMap (OSM), the site enables users to edit map data (right click) and the same gets reflected within 24 hours (map tiles are updated every 15 minutes and directions are updated daily).
As of writing this, there was not much of data available except for few parts of Bangalore and Delhi (navigational data is surely not worth talking about).
In total, MapQuest has rolled out a total of eight sites using OSM data since July. The countries have been selected because of the enthusiasm of the OSM community in each region, in addition to the amount of rich data that is available.
In US, MapQuest has shown strong growth, especially in mobile segment (iPhone app has grown 162 percent in the last six months. It launched the free MapQuest 4 Mobile app on BlackBerry, with more than 45,000 downloads of the beta version in last seven months).
Given that India data is still not credible enough, it’d be interesting to see how MapQuest crowd sources the data. [Google Map Maker has done a phenomenal job].
We hope this is not a ‘spray and pray’ strategy.
