મેડાવો.org

Hi everyone! Currently I am at the NextFest conference in Los Angeles presenting the work I’ve done with Yahoo MapMixer, so I haven’t been able to respond to your questions quickly. So here we go!

First of all, let me say that I appreciate all of your love even though most of you didn’t know what the whole big deal was all about

About 6 months ago I started working on a project code named Remaps. The idea then was that when we go to any normal map sites for places like college campus or parks or the similar, Yahoo or Google maps don’t have any detail for the area. However, for most of these places, there already exist tons of detailed maps that provide the missing data. So how do we take advantage of all these detailed maps? This is what Yahoo! MapMixer is all about.

Let me give you an example. Here is a map of a place dear to us all, Kutch. There is no detailed data for Kutch on any mapping platform:

You can view this map’s page on MapMixer too. See how it is overlaid on the same area on the Yahoo Map? Try to zoom, and drag the map. It behaves just like a normal map would. Make sure you also try the opacity slider on the top right hand corner. That will change the transparency level of the map and let you peek underneath easily.

So that is what the product is. You can access the public product here: http://maps.yahoo.com/mapmixer

In the few days after launch, it has been getting a lot of good press coverage from both the traditional news outlets, and also from bloggers. I was interviewed by BusinessWeek, Reuters, and am also scheduled with NPR (National Public Radio). Below is a list of some of those articles:

Reuters
Yahoo Freestyle Design Competitions Yield Pay-Offs
By Eric Auchard
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN1233959020070913

CNET.com
Hack Days Spawn New Yahoo Travel, Shopping Features
By Elinor Mills
http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9777339-7.html

BusinessWeek
Showtime for Yahoo Hacks
By Rob Hof
http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/techbeat/archives/2007/09/post_5.html

San Francisco Chronicle
New Today, From Yahoo
By Verne Kopytoff
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=19&entry_id=20224

O’Reilly Radar
Yahoo Launches Map Mixer: Make Your Map
By Brady Forrest
http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/09/yahoo_launches.html

TechCrunch
Hacks Make Their Way Into Yahoo Products
By Michael Arrington
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/09/12/hacks-make-their-way-into-yahoo-products/

Many other articles that you can see here: http://news.search.yahoo.com/news/search?p=mapmixer

There are also over a 100 other posts on blogs, you can view some of those here:
http://www.technorati.com/posts/tag/mapmixer

Also finally, I’d like to apologize that I have alienated myself the past few months from not only Medavo but from calling everyone, etc. Ami & Avi know how many of their calls I haven’t returned in time I also want to thank all of you for being the greatest, most supportive and loving family in the world. I worked on this just about every hour of the day I had, and most times of the night also. I have also learned a great, great deal about how to build a public product. I have loved every moment of it—every tiring, getting-2-hours-of-sleep, sleeping-under-my-work-desk, forgetting-to-eat moment of it. Now on to the next “shower” idea…

Love,
Nimit