Perspectives

Just got an invite to mashup with Google Mashup editor. Definitely looking promising. More later as I fiddle with it deeper. Looks like Pipes has got some competitor.

Some more updates:
Barcamp bangalore day 1 was boring
I havent spoken yet coz I ran out of time. If I end up going tomorrow, then I will speak.
Check out Mootools and moo.fx. I am checking out too. I felt that I was so biased to YUI that I didnt know there are these other things.
Just installed apache2 on my ubuntu.
Ever thought “du -hs” sucks? Especially when you dunno who is taking up the space? Try gdmap.

Forget all that I have said so far, Go check out babalife.com. Spend sometime. You will be surprised!

Have you guys seen Microsoft research’s Mapcruncher? There are multiple versions of this software that can do multiple things, but the one that caught my eye was this version here that can basically make maps out of the images that you may have. The idea is, you have a map to scale. But that is all you have! You can then crunch this map on to the existing satellite imagery that MS has and then using Mapcruncher.

Load up your map image, then mark a few points on this map with the help of global map that you know. Now, lock them both up and ask Mapcruncher to render the tiles for you. Map crucher then provides you an HTML web kit, that you can just copy over to your web server and then, yes, you are done. As simple as that. Your map is now pannable, zoomable etc. I would have also loved if they managed to go some kinda OCR so that the contents on your map are serachable too.. Too much to ask for, I guess.

Here is a small mashup of the map of India from Yahoo India maps mashed up with Live earth’s satellite maps.

As usual, something needs to suck ass with microsoft, so you need “.Net 3.0″ before you can get mapcruncher working. Download it from here.

If you have something to do with GIS and want to stay on top of what is happening in this industry, and you also think Digg is too much crap, then BlinkGeo’s RSS is what you may want to subscribe to. Basically a Digg style news percolation but dedicated to geo.

This is probably a right time to sit down and write about how mapping services are going to change your life, especially if you are living in developing or going to develop countries. In a few years, hopefully, this post wont have much relevance. GIS, GPS and LBS would probably already be a part of your life. This post is an Indian outlook to it.

Like I mentioned before, Local seems to be the buzz word in Indian internet industry. People have saturated or will saturate entertainment needs of the indian internet/mobile user. Wallpapers, ringtones, call tunes etc are already the biggest revenue generators for many companies and telcos.

Now infotainment is the in thing. And Maps will be an integral part of this industry. We already know onyomo does maps. Next, there are folks like routeguru and tolmolbol. While Tolmolbol will probably source their maps from Google, Routeguru, which gets it’s local and GIS data from Eicher, will probably use Eicher for rendering their maps as well. Routeguru is a very interesting routing service in that they use landmarks along the way to give you routes. Now, that is how Indians are used to driving directions. Burrp is another neatly done local’s site, and maps+burrp will be even better. Ilaaka doesnt deserve to be in this list, but what the heck, they show you a map too..from wikimapia.

The folks next in line are property services, of the likes of indiaproperty, 99acres etc. It will be a wonderful addon and a great service to folks looking to rent/buy real estate.

Certain other holiday/travel based sites show you maps too. Check out holidayiq for instance. Cleartrip is almost there with their “small world” service. The map is just too important there to be missing.

What do you think? GIS are here to stay? Or is it still too early to talk about it?

Big news for the GIS folks. TomTom acquires Teleatlas.

Sometime last friday, I heard about Google’s new Local service for India. As expected, they just have two text boxes in there unlike a yahoo, where you would expect links all over the place that will get you to forget what you came to the site for.

Although I am a very critical guy, I would refrain from commenting much because I know the problems one encounters with Local and India. No, it is not technology at all. Local is a solved problem in many other countries. Data is, and there is no easy way out. Hard work and innovation is needed from the data guys if this or any other local portal is going to become useful to the layman.

I just came back from proto.in and clearly, Local is the where the buzz is. A lot of startups trying to get their piece of cake from this potentially large and untapped market opportunity.

Coming back to Google India Local, there are some disconnects. Data that works on Google maps doesnt work on India local. I am sure they are fixing it.

But, a larger thought problem these biggies need to understand is there is a thin line between what a business is and what is not. For instance, the keyword “icici atm” doesnt give me a result, but “icici bank” does. Not fair to expect the end user to know what is “local” enough to be a part of “local”. At the look of it, seems like they are sourcing their data from Indiacom (never heard of these guys before) and Infomedia (JustDial is still trying to be a Google/Yahoo all by themselves? ).

Anyways, Thanks Google for the service. Hoping you will get usable content quickly in there somehow.

Folks from Minkey just gave a presentation on the minkey widget at proto.in. Pretty interesting, Sort of similar to adsense/ypn except, the content is organic. Something like a recommendation for the blog reader on other similar content pages..

Check it out at minekey.com

I just registered with tyroo, the advertiser/publisher network, very similar to YPN or Adsense. I also hear that Yahoo! India has invested in this company. I just heard them talk at proto.in (where I am sitting right now). I signed up and this is what I get:

“You are just one step away from earning ad revenues. You will receive an email from us within the next 48 hours confirming your successful registration. We take this time to ensure that your payment details have been accurately logged with us. “

C’mon guys!

The closest I have come to barcamps was when it was held at the Yahoo office last year in Bangalore. Even in that one, I was busy with something else that I could not really attend it. Although I am hearing mixed opinions on the effectiveness of Barcamps, and more specifically, the ones in India, I want to see it for myself.

Registered for a Talk in the Ajax collective. I will either be speaking about “Hacking with Maps” or “Mapping with hacks”. Really, there is a difference. Not sure if it is going to be on 28th ot 29th but for sure, it will be in IIMB.

Incase you are going to be there too..Let me know, I d love to meet up with you..