Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Google introduces Indoor Maps for malls in India

Google announced on Wednesday that indoor maps for a number of public spaces such as malls and along with locations like the National Gallery of Modern Art in Delhi and the Salar Jung Museum in Hyderabad. The museums were already being covered by Google's Art View project, as reported previously.

Google's indoor maps are already available in other parts of the world, in countries including the US, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong and the Netherlands.

Google has recently been resurrecting their map offerings in India, after their Street View plans ran into roadblocks in June 2011, after security concerns were raised in Karnataka, just three weeks after they started.

Some of the major locations include Ambience Mall in Gurgaon and Select City Walk in Delhi. In a press release, Google stated that they have worked with 75 partners, across 22 cities to launch indoor maps in India and they will be adding more locations.

The maps cover the major metros and also big cities like Bhopal, Coimbatore, Dehradun, and Ludhiana. According to Google, detailed floor plans will automatically appear when you're using the Google Maps app on iOS and Android, and zoomed in on a building where indoor map data is available. Simply zoom out and the indoor Google Maps will fade away.

In some locations, users will have the option of using the indoor My Location feature to help you navigate your way inside. This means that when you move up or down a level in a building with multiple floors, the map will automatically update to display which floor you're on.  At these locations, you can also access indoor walking directions to help you get to where you need to go more quickly.

While Google has just started indoor maps, Nokia got a head start with their HERE maps. Nokia launched the service in June 2013, covering 150 malls, in 17 cities, as previously reported.

For a full list of locations, click here - the service is being rolled out in the following 22 locations for now: Bangalore, Bhopal, Chennai, Coimbatore, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Delhi, Ghaziabad, Goa, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kochi, Kolkata, Lucknow, Ludhiana, Moradabad, Mumbai, Noida, Pune, Raipur and Vadodara.