Mapquest hops on the crowdsourced map making bandwagon with $1M

As of July 2010, Mapquest (a subsidiary of AOL) has enlisted the help of users to keep maps up to date. Countries in Europe, North America, and Asia have been selected to participate in this revolutionary Crowdsourcing opportunity. AOL announced they would be investing $1,000,000 into Mapquest’s new user-built design.

AOL is releasing a new product based on OpenStreetMap, or OSM for short, which is an exciting new project that has become quite popular in Australia and Europe and is becoming more popular in the United States. In the United States, the use of the iPhone Mapquest app has grown 162% in the past six months, and nearly 45,000 people have downloaded the Mapquest Mobile application for the Blackberry. With user numbers in the U.S. already soaring, OSM will no doubt take Mapquest’s popularity to new heights.

This technology will allow map makers and map readers the ability to stay current with rapid urban development. Having a large number of cartographers who are locally based will ensure maps stay recent and detailed. For example, a crowdsourced map is able to provide information regarding construction zones, road closures, and new restaurants. There are innumerable benefits of this new project, however, the accuracy of users may be the major question at hand.

The ability to quickly and accurately update maps will take the world of maps to the next level. Mapping the densely populated cities of India is a prime example of what can be achieved by compiling the knowledge of many. The majority of the Indian cities of Bangalore and Delhi have already been mapped, an extraordinary accomplishment considering the sheer size of these areas.