The Whereis team is mad about maps, and has been providing people with digital maps and directions for more than a decade – and longer if you count UBD print directories. Whereis is a leading provider of digital maps and content for Australia, and also offers digital maps and content for New Zealand.
Whereis has developed an entire range of digital mapping products that can be used across most mainstream media, from the web (Whereis.com) to 3G phones, to portable GPS devices and integrated navigation systems for the car. Whereis also has specialised products for business and government.
Whereis sources more than 600,000 Points of Interest (POIs) across 82 categories from the Yellow and White Pages directories, the Citysearch website, and other third-party suppliers.
This makes Whereis map data some of the most comprehensive and useful across Australia. Some of the location information available in Whereis mapping data includes:
- Accommodation
- Airports
- ATMs
- Parking
- Petrol stations
- Restaurants
- School zones
- Red light and speed cameras
- Speed limits
Hours and hours on the road
Whereis has a dedicated team of self-confessed map geeks. Each year, the research team spends more than 15,000 hours checking changes to the Australian road network and driving more than 320,000 kilometres of roads to maintain the accuracy of the Whereis database. That’s some road trip.
All those on-road hours and roadhouse meals are worth it in the end, because it means Whereis maps keep pace as our lives change. Updates appear automatically every six weeks on Whereis.com and Whereis Mobile. GPS devices release new map data one to four times a year, depending on the brand (please contact your hardware manufacturer for further details).
Customer-reported map errors are also investigated. Your feedback is used to make Whereis even better, so feel free to report a map error by visiting www.whereis.com.
Meet our mapper
Bhavesh Rhathod is one of the research drivers for Whereis. You’d be surprised at how many kilometres he racks up in a single day, let alone a week or month. On an average day, he’s on the road for around 700 km, mapping thanks to a plethora of high-tech mapping equipment mounted in and on his vehicle. Most of the technology resides within the car, apart from an external antenna that he says is far too frequently mistaken by people as him having left a box on his roof.
Map capture equipment collects latitude and longitude, plus elevation of the road, and video is captured along every road travelled, thanks to five highly accurate cameras mounted on the vehicle. These enable Whereis to note Points of Interest, street signs, lane details and accurate speed limits to ensure the maps are of the highest quality. The result of all this hard work? High quality maps that make for a positive navigation experience.
