TradeMe has just announced a new entrant into the field of online maps. Smaps seems to be put together by the same people who developed (my current fave) Zoomin maps, Projectx Technology. We’re starting to be spoiled for choice with AAMaps and Google Maps. And ye olde (in the NZ scene) Wises Online maps.
One thing that has been brought to my attention about these mapping services is the potential for incorrect information. For example, one North Shore school principal told me that his school was incorrectly labelled on Wises online map but correctly labelled on the hard copy. I looked on Wises for myself and sure enough, the schools name is incorrect. The same incorrect information is repeated in the Smaps map but not on Zoomin where users can add tags.
I checked the AAMaps site and the school is correctly (if rather oddly) labelled / tagged?. The school hasn’t been tagged yet on Google Maps, but you can identify the site easily.
This is of interest because of the continuing discussion about the new web applications that rely on users inputting data (wikipedia, etc) and their veracity. Wises is an established company and you make the assumption that the data that they have will be checked, re-checked and then checked again.
I emailed both Wises and Projectx and I’ll be interested to see the responses.
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