The Mantle: (Not) Mapping South Sudan: A Lesson Learned?

New post up at The Mantle on Google and Bing *not* accurately showing Africa’s newest countries, Sudan and South Sudan, which became two independent states on July 9th. A little snip:

As of this writing, South Sudan is not shown on Google Maps. If you query “South Sudan” over at Bing’s map service, embarrassingly the little orange push-pin lands somewhere in Niger, three countries away—and Sudan is

still as huge and singular as it ever was, cartographically speaking. Over the course of July, some have pointed this out. And recently, South Sudan has made its way onto Google Earth, maybe meaning that Google and Microsoft public mapping services aren’t too far behind in showing Africa’s 54th state. Either way, many are wondering the reason for the hold-up.

- Jake Perry