Google Mapathon was an annual mapathon event organized by Google that invited the public to make improvements to Google Maps, through the Google Map Maker. It was permanently discontinued in 2016 because Google Map Maker was discontinued.[1]
The event was held for the first time in 2013 in India, and subsequently in 2014 in Australia. The program ran into trouble waters in India as it was accused of including critical military-sensitive areas.[2]
2013
editThe India mapathon took place from 12 February to 25 March.[3] Aimed at increasing the amount of local information, prizes, in the form of 10 Samsung Galaxy Note 800's, 40 Samsung Galaxy S II GT I9100's, and 50 Flipkart gift coupons worth Rs. 5000.[4]
Over 26,000 participants made 2 million contributions to Google Maps, a total of 800,000 POIs (point of interests) were added which included 22,000 health/emergency POIs, 30,000 stores and 52,000 restaurants/eateries.[5]
Google named Vishal Saini as the winner of the tournament with 32077 points.[5] Saini had mapped the city of Pathankot, which is close to military installations. The Survey of India informed the company of its violations of the laws and filed a complaint. Google responded by saying that the company was ready to discuss any concerns.[6] On March 21, the Surveyor-General asked Google to stop the event, stating that it did not have permission before launching the mapathon.[7]
The only rules of the Mapathon were that you had to be a resident of India and only edits made in India would count.
2014
editThe 2014 edition of the contest was held in Australia from March 24 to April 20. The top 315 mappers were given prizes.[8]
References
edit- ^ "Google Map Maker Discontinued March 2017". Google. Retrieved 19 October 2024.
- ^ "Why is Google's Mapathon in hot waters in India? All you need to know". Tech2News. 12 August 2014. Archived from the original on 9 February 2017. Retrieved 30 October 2016.
- ^ Mapathon 2013
- ^ "Mapathon 2013 - Help Google to make Maps better and win prizes - India Only".
- ^ a b "Finally! Google India announces Mapathon 2013 Winners | DataReign". 9 December 2013.
- ^ "Google says its Mapathon contest is in line with Indian laws". 8 April 2013. Archived from the original on 7 March 2017. Retrieved 7 March 2017.
- ^ Sandeep Joshi (April 24, 2013). "'Google didn't take permission for Mapathon'". The Hindu.
- ^ Mapathon 2014
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