Yahoo! MapMixer, and a life update
Posted by Nimit September 14th, 2007
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
Entry Filed under: General, Life Update
13 Comments Add your own
1. Jayanti | September 14th, 2007 at 8:09 am
Dear Nimit,
Youuuuuu Did It.
Congrats , we are proud of you so as the team at yahooooo.
Jayanti
2. Jaya | September 14th, 2007 at 8:38 am
Dear Nimit, Cograculations ,We are very proud of you. It is big achivement.You made Maru family”s name roshan. Get more success in life..& go ahead. jaya
3. Neena | September 14th, 2007 at 10:13 am
Its very nice of you to post detailed at night , after your first day NEXTFEST presentation of MAPMIXER. When we call at night 12 to know what’s going on you talk with me for minute that ” I will keep everything on medavo but right now I am extremely hungry and tired too, saro thiyo any way parushana aye.” You are our Guru beta. Thankyou for coming in our life. Your hardwork, positive attitude & politeness will make you go far. I wish jainkul & manushaya bhav ni shan banajoooooooo.
4. Nalini | September 14th, 2007 at 10:24 am
Very nice explanation Nimit, You did a great job, we all are proud of you as Maru family idol ,your hard work , dedication & positive attituide will lead you to great sucess. we all love you & wish you all the best in future.
5. Vasu | September 14th, 2007 at 11:55 am
congratulation Nimit we r very proud of u when we will see indian idol we will kept always in mind that one our NIMIT MARU gotYahoo Idol that ia from MARU FAMILYwe r very happy to see yr sucess.
vasu jagdish
6. Dipti Haria | September 14th, 2007 at 4:28 pm
Hey Nimit,
This is great work. Congratulations…May success always be with you. Good Luck.
Best,
VishDip & Khushi
7. Mahendra | September 15th, 2007 at 1:14 am
Nim
We love you. I have purposely not called you so many times.
Kak
8. Ami | September 15th, 2007 at 1:29 am
Nimi we loove you! Congratulations on everything that you’ve achieved. You deserve every bit of it and much more. Btw…I’m waiting for my phone call now that you have more time
Good luck with everything. Mapmixer looks great!
9. Harakh | September 15th, 2007 at 11:17 am
Hi Nimi, more than beta you are my buddy ! You deserve the best… We love you beta. Hard work and dedication always pays off.
10. Dhenu | September 15th, 2007 at 3:56 pm
Hey Nim,
congrats again on the big launch. I like how easy the features are to use, especially the opacity feature. One question that was posed on one of the articles: what if someone uploads something other than a map? does it get filtered out?
dhenu
11. Nimit | September 15th, 2007 at 5:44 pm
There is passive filtering. It works just how something like flickr, or Youtube would work. If someone uploaded a bad map, then because of the amount of traffic, most likely someone would report that as abuse, and then our customer care team would go ahead and delete it. It would be very hard for us to figure out algorithmically what is a map and what isn’t.
12. Priti | September 16th, 2007 at 11:36 pm
Nimi, your product looks pretty impressive. This is a great idea and a very helpful feature. You have explained it pretty well. This feature makes lot of sense. Thanks for sharing. So when are u calling me now?
13. Avni | September 17th, 2007 at 9:42 am
Nimuuuuu bhai!!! CONGRATULATIONS
. I am also very proud of you as is everyone else. You are definitely someone I look up to in every way (not just work wise haha). Anyway, its okay…I think I may be able to forgive you about the phone calls….although I expect plenty more. Also, I hope you go to sleep at night before I start class in the morning (if that made sense…) 
.
In all…congrats again! and have an AMAZING time on the cruise…..relax dude - you deserve it!
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