My own investigation and also some reader tips have indicated that the Nokia map for Amman and Jordan should be released within a month or so. It seems that Navteq/Nokia have finally gotten “local approval” to release their map.

I don’t know exactly what was holding up the public release of both the Nokia/Navteq map or the locally produced map by InsideJo. It might have been security concerns or some conflicting business interests or both. One thing is sure. It was an absolute shame that these maps have been delayed for so long. Jordan and Amman are LATE. I hope officials and leaders out there appreciate that the delay in having electronic maps for the country and for the capital has been detrimental to the country’s reputation.

If the Nokia Amman and Jordan maps do get released as has been indicated by the latest information I got, it should appear on Nokia devices soon, for free of course. Which will be fantastic, because, believe me, I got lost several times in Amman in the past weeks. So many new neighborhoods and areas have sprung up and it would be useful for Ammanis, Ammani businesses and of course tourists to have a decent electronic maps available.

I hope that the InsideJo guys also are able to release their map too,

In the meantime, Google Maps now also has a detailed map for Amman. Below I have included comparative screenshots of the same area viewed in Google Maps and InsideJo’s online map.

You will immediately notice two big problems with the Google Map. The smaller streets have no names and the names of streets in Arabic are often messed up. The funny/outrageous thing is that its seems that the Arabic on the Google Maps has been automatically transliterated from English names (which in turn where transliterated from the original Arabic name). So for example, the street my office is on is called 3arar Street:

شارع عرار

In English it becomes “Arar”

And in Arabic on Google Maps, it is:

ارار

If you think I am joking just see below. This is a scandal. A company with the resources of Google should not make such mistakes. It even got name of the Jordanian Royal Family wrong on some streets. Come on!

The final problem with the Google Map is that it doesn’t appear on mobile devices. Very strange.

So finally, it seems to be happening. I hope that by the end of Ramadan we’ll finally have our city and country mapped on devices in our pockets and cars.

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