Yahoo! India Unveils Maps In Local Languages
Bangalore – Yahoo! India has unveiled a new service for the first time in India — maps in local Indian languages along with walking directions. This is available on its existing Yahoo! India maps at http://in.maps.yahoo.com/.
The enhancements displays Yahoo!’s aim to become the leading starting point for consumers on the Web. Localization of Yahoo! India Maps will enable a large community of new users to come online.
After a recent introduction of driving directions, Yahoo! India is now offering the option of walking directions. Users can walk to their destinations with a simple walking route.
These walking directions can be sent to a mobile phone through an SMS. Besides providing key landmarks along the route (ATMs, hospitals, etc.), the directions on walking also provide clarity on every major turn, the company said in a statement. There is also an option to pan and zoom to any point on the map, save it as an image and share it with others.
“For the first occasion in India, walking directions and maps in local languages are being introduced by Yahoo! India. This aligns well with Yahoo! India’s general strategy of enabling more users to experience the Internet on a PC or mobile,” Gopal Krishna, Head of Audience, Yahoo! India said.
Exceptional features of this service are – Maps in local language of the place with an efficient, user-friendly display, provides walking directions from any point in the city.
The Yahoo! India Maps is now accessible in 9 local and common languages. Apart from English, users can also experience it in Hindi, Tamil, Gujarati, Marathi, Bengali, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam and Punjabi.
Also, Yahoo! India users can now look for directions across 179 cities, 4,767 towns, and 226,114 villages. Users can also search for over 3 million points of interest already marked by Internet users from around the web.
“Yahoo! India Maps was unveiled in beta in April 2007 and is a Web 2.0 product built out of Yahoo!’s R&D centre in Bangalore.”
“At Yahoo! India, we are constantly developing innovative products and services that provide compelling experiences to our users,” Krishna added.