By Herman Lai, posted Dec 8, 2011 at 4:29 AM, 394 views,

Baidu Maps Adds Feature For Checking Interior Floor Plans

We just realize Baidu also got interior floor plans feature, which enables you to figure out where you are and see where you might want to go when you’re indoors. Google also has this cool feature, you can check out their official blog here. Kind of interesting that Baidu is the forerunner, they launched it back in October, but for some reasons, we didn’t hear anything about it until today finally.

Comparison…

Is there any difference between Google and Baidu in terms of the indoor navigation feature? They are actually doing the same thing, but we think Google is doing a better job right now…

According to Baidu’s official webpage explained, Baidu interior mapping function is focusing on famous shopping malls at the northern China, Shenzhen and Guangzhou, which would have specific categories about the shopping malls like Food, Shopping, Entertainment, Services, and Accommodation. The official said, they already had 500 participating malls (pdf link) around China, including about 180 in Beijing and 200 in Shanghai. Furthermore, Baidu allowed the store’s owners to put up messages (like promotion) on the floor plans, so Baidu Map users can actually check out the latest status of the store without having to visit the place. However, the down side is, Baidu did not showed any intention that would explore more buildings excepts shopping malls.

In contrast, Google has floor plans inside buildings like retail store, airport terminal, with sufficient details. You can check out the video above to show you how Google indoor maps works. Also, Google allowed users to create the floor plans or blueprints, and that’s going to enrich Google indoor feature for sure.

On the Baidu webpage, they did not mentioned they are going to allow users to upload floor plans. And we think the feature might linked to governemtn censorship issue as well. So, if Google is seeking to add this new features into the map of China, then they might find themselves in a hassle again with the government.

Wrap-up…

It is not really a big deal of which providers launch this feature first. But it is important that their function is rich, that’s meaning the qualities and quantities of indoor floor plans that the company owned. Of course, you don’t check out some out-updated info, therefore, the one who can provide better and richer details are going to the forerunner in this race.

Source: Baidu (Chinese), Google