Yahoo! enables driving directions in India now
Posted on January 11, 2008
Filed Under Internet, Mobile Applications, Software |
They say men don’t stop to ask for directions. Or was it women who do that? Either way, neither may need to anymore in India. Yahoo! India has introduced driving directions and community search on its existing Yahoo! India Maps. What this means in theory is you could be driving in a country of poor road signs and no longer land up in Ranthambhore when you are headed to Bharatpur.
A feature available for many years in developed countries, you could call this somewhat revolutionary in India. The service enable users to search for directions between 179 cities, 4767 towns and 226114 villages – as well as search for about three million points of interest marked by Internet users from around the web.
And a test run shows Yahoo! India Maps lives up to its claim of being user friendly, even understanding queries in a conversational style like “From Hawa Mahal, Jaipur to Greater Kailash 2, New Delhi.”
Still in Beta, Yahoo! India Maps promises to provide landmarks along the route, the count of roads between turns and the areas that they will enter and leave. Apart from calculating the distance and time taken for travel, the instruction set also takes care of One Ways and even Auto Rickshaw fares in major cities according to a company release.
Other features include the ability to send directions to mobiles as a test message and saving images of any part of the route map.
I know where I will be downloading directions from the next time I hit the road - and I also know who I will be calling should I lose my way.
Some other unique features promised by the company
- Calculation of distance & time, even Auto Rickshaw fares!
- Indication of landmarks and localities along the route
- Ability to search for places of interest such as ATMs, Petrol Pumps, Restuarants, Hotels, etc
- Understands queries in conversational style
- Provision for concise direction, with ability to SMS to one’s mobile phone
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2 Responses to “Yahoo! enables driving directions in India now”
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Speaking of driving in India, what do you think about the new Nano car by Tata?
I am a bit torn on this issue, on the one hand millions of new cars will increase global warming, on the other hand, US car drivers are already doing that with their huge vehicles, and allowing millions of new people to have greater mobility in India will really help the country’s economy. I think it is a net positive development, because it will maybe set a new standard for an “economic” sized vehicle worldwide.
Is there a hybrid or all-hydrogen version in the works?
Hi Joe,
I agree with you. And I would this: Looking at Nano being the problem is looking at the issue from the wrong end. People will buy cars because they need transport. Why should only the upper classes have access to the bigger cars? Why target the Nano for the not so well-off?
The solution lies in providing more sustainable means of public transport as well as investing to newer technologies; but I would really bet on the former being a better solution. Even now most cities in the world do not have a system where cars can be dispensed with.
And no, hybrid and all hydrogen cars to do not seem to be under development here.
Cheers.. Ajay