Early this quarter, more than 500 active mappers and volunteers joined forces across the Philippines in a series of Google Map Maker events that explored the benefits and fundamental steps toward building even more beautiful country maps.
The events kicked off with a Map Maker workshop in Manila, where Advocates and Regional Expert Reviewers worked alongside budding mappers. Their enthusiasm carried over to three Map Maker Summits: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, where the Filipino mapping community focused on the ways an accurate country map can lend itself to improved community planning, disaster preparedness and tourism.
Tourist spots
Airports/Ports/Bus Terminals
Hotels and Resorts
Police Stations
Malls / Business Establishments
Pasalubong Stores
Barangay / City Halls
To kick things up a bit, they will be awarding the top mappers in the country! Please make sure you read the mechanics below for details on how to join the Map Your Town Competition.
Interested individuals must register here.
This contest is only open to individuals based in the Philippines.
The Map Your Town competition shall start on May 16, 2012 and end 2 months later on July 15, 2012. Only approved edits during this timeframe shall be considered eligible.
MapMaker Advocates and Regional Expert Reviewers are disqualified from the individual contest.
The top 10 mappers in the Philippines will be awarded with netbooks.
For the mapper with the most number of contributions in the Philippines, PhP100,000 will be donated to a public school from his/her hometown.
If you’re a woman entrepreneur or professional and want to pick up skills to help your business succeed in the online world, Google and Athena Network Singapore has something for you.
Women Entrepreneurs on the Web (WeOW), an initiative by both organizations, will kick-off in June, with the launch party on 31st May. The event was first started by Google in India and saw over 300 female executives and entrepreneurs participate. Read more
That’s no surprise: It has 5GB of free space, which is more than double the size of what Dropbox offers, but less then Microsoft’s Skydrive (see handy comparison). It is also integrated with Google’s power search functionality.
Eventually, it will have deep integration with Google Apps and Google’s whole range of services, resulting in less friction for user adoption.
Most crucial of all is Google Drive’s ability to automatically sync files with your laptop, smartphone, or tablet. All you need to do is install the app, which is already available on Android, PC, Mac, and coming to the iOS. It functions similarly to Dropbox.
Android Market, Google’s official app market for Android, recently celebrated the milestone of ten billion total downloads. To commemorate the achievement, they released an infographic containing a slew of statistics about Android Market and its users.
Singapore, it turns out, is the fifth most app-crazed country in the world by downloads per capita. Asian nations are doing particularly well on this front, with the South Koreans coming out on top, followed by Hong Kong and Taiwan. The United States is the only non-Asian country in the top five. Read more
As a lead up to Google DevFest this Saturday in Singapore, SGE is teaming up with Google to have pre-DevFest drinks this coming Thursday 10th November from 7-9pm at Sauce Bar (8 Raffles Avenue, Esplanade Mall #01-10). There will be some finger food and drinks (thanks Google!). Register for Google DevFest here and drinks here. Come to mingle with the speakers and fellow developers! Limited to 50 people only.
Google+ has now released several sets of application programming interfaces (APIs) that allows app developers to access public data on the rapidly growing social network. Read more
Here are some interesting startup news around Malaysia, not only in its capital, Kuala Lumpur, but also other startup hubs such as Penang, Malacca, and many more. Read more
If search engine optimization is crucial to your business in terms of visibility and sales leads, then this is something to watch out for. Wired recently reported that Google is now looking into how to use data from its +1 button to rearrange search results. Read more
This just in from the Google+ blog: Starting next week, the +1 button will allow Google+ users to share content from around the Internet directly with their friends on the social network. Read more
Next month, Google Asia Pacific will organize their annual Go Measure with Google Analytics in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. It will packed with tips and insights from local and international web analytics professionals and speakers from the Google Analytics team. See how analytics help drive value through case studies from the travel, fashion, retail, technology, and telecommunications industries. Walk away knowing how to improve your site’s user experience and increase marketing ROI. At the end of the day attendees have the option to attend a Google Analytics 101 training conducted by Google Analytics Certified Partners or to have a one-on-one consultation with our speakers. Read more
As a lead up to 
Next month, Google Asia Pacific will organize their annual Go Measure with Google Analytics in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. It will packed with tips and insights from local and international web analytics professionals and speakers from the Google Analytics team. See how analytics help drive value through case studies from the travel, fashion, retail, technology, and telecommunications industries. Walk away knowing how to improve your site’s user experience and increase marketing ROI. At the end of the day attendees have the option to attend a Google Analytics 101 training conducted by Google Analytics Certified Partners or to have a one-on-one consultation with our speakers. 
