Bin Laden's Compound - Updated

Abbottabad, Pakistan

The location of Osama Bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad has been identified by local sources. The compound, that is described as having 4m-6m (12ft-18ft) walls and being eight times larger than other homes in the area, is to the south-east of a Pakistan Military Academy. The satellite imagery shown on this Google Map clearly matches photographs of the compound released by the Pentagon (pdf link from ABC).

Abbottbad resident and Twitter user Sohaib Athar (@ReallyVirtual) Tweeted what he says was the location of the crashed helicopter in the American attack on the compound. The helicopter is being reported as having crashed because of 'technical failure'.

The New York Times describes the compound as being "a large mansion on the outskirts of the town center, set on an imposing hilltop and ringed by 12-foot-high concrete walls topped with barbed wire."

Big hat-tips to Ogle Earth and the Google Earth Blog.

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Google Map of US Drone Attacks

U.S. Drone Attacks in Pakistan

This My Map shows the approximate locations of all U.S. drone attacks in Pakistan since 2004 on Google Maps. Strikes prior to 2008 are shown with yellow map markers, those in 2008 during the Bush administration are shown with red markers, and strikes during the Obama administration are green.

Most strikes are on Pashtun villages in North and South Waziristan in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas along the Afghan border. Clicking on a map marker opens an information window with details of casualties and a link to a source for news of each drone attack.

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Google Map Maker

It is getting hard to keep up with the pace of developments from the Google Maps team. Today's huge development from Google Maps is the ability to edit Google Maps.

Google Map Maker is a new service that allows users to contribute and edit map information for certain regions. With Google Map Maker users can locate, draw, label and add map features, including:

• Borders and regions (states/provinces, districts/administrative regions, cities, neighborhoods, etc.)
• Road networks
  
• Places of interest
• Local businesses
• And many more features like railways, waterways, events and reviews
  

In effect Google Map Maker is borrowing the concept of OpenStreetMap for collaborative mapping (the big difference to OpenStreetMap is that any submitted data will not become open source but will become owned by Google). As such any submitted content may be edited by other users or moderators .

Google Map Maker is separate from Google Maps and any additions you make to the map will not appear immediately on Google Maps. However it is clear that Google hope to get useful mapping data from the community and say that "at a later time, this content may be published in Google Maps for others to see and use."

Currently editing is available only in these countries:

• Antigua and Barbuda
• Bahamas
• Barbados
• Bermuda
• British Virgin Islands
• Cayman Islands
• Cyprus
• Grenada
• Iceland
• Jamaica
• Netherlands Antilles
• Pakistan
• St. Kitts and Nevis
• St. Lucia
• St. Vincent and the Grenadines
• Trinidad and Tobago
• Vietnam

To help users with this new service Google have produced a Google Map Maker Getting Started Guide and a User Contributed Help Site.

Via: Google LatLong Blog
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Google Maps Mashups: Pakistan, Turkey, Indonesia, Bermuda, Cayman Islands

PAKISTAN: Pactive - Pakistan on the Map Mapping landmarks, restaurants, parks and services in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad

• TURKEY: Abdullah Gul Reviews Map - User-generated reviews for Turkish President Mr. Abdullah (Turkish language) [via]
• INDONESIA: Jakarta Map - Indonesian language mashup showing locations throughout the city.
• BERMUDA: Map of Bermuda - Mashing up locations of Hotels, Attractions and Transport
• CAYMAN ISLANDS: Map of Grand Cayman - Mashing up locations of Hotels, Attractions and Transport

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