Google Preparing To Release Map Data For Georgia

The recent conflict in Georgia has raised some questions about how Google Maps has handled mapping in that part of the world. The most obvious question is, why doesn't Google Maps show any cities or roads for Georgia, or its neighbors Armenia and Azerbaijan? The answer is we never launched coverage in those countries because we simply weren't satisfied with the map data we had available. We're constantly searching for the best map data we can find, and sometimes will delay launching coverage in a country if we think we can get more comprehensive data. Some of our customers have asked if we removed map data from any of these countries in response to the recent hostilities in that region and I can assure you that is not the case. Data for these countries were never on Google Maps in the first place.

	Google Denies Removing Georgian Maps Data Following Ossetian War	Killfile	Tue Aug 12	10
	Is Google Taking Sides? As of 7:06 AM EDT Google Maps Had Removed All Cities and Roads From Georgia	Google	Tue Aug 12	39