Aug

14

Bhuvan what?

August 14, 2009 posted by indiatime |

After hearing and reading about the great hoopla about Indian government’s answer to google earth, I managed to go to the Bhuvan website, register, download the software, and get a glimpse of what looks like some google earth-like app. Overall, the process took a few hours at the end of which my feeling of exasperation turned to frustration and great disappointment.

First off the bat, let me say how proud I feel that someone at the Indian Space Research Organization has figured out how to write software that shows satellite images layered on top of various information systems. And to be held in comparison to Google Earth, obviously one of the the best apps on the web, is rather distracting, intimidating and sucks a lot. That’s why, when someone in the Indian government, last year announced that India was busy making a google-earth killer app, many of us proud Indians hoped and wished for Indian agencies to wait and come out with the app only when it was ready, good enough to be presented, and with all the bandwidth resources at hand. It would be such a big disappointment, many of us thought, if after all the bragging and boasting, we turned up with something that was hardly worthy of a 21st century web user experience.

Well, folks, Bhuvan - the google earth killer is out and on display. And it is not only disappointing, but is a painful user experience from the get go all the way through. It has browser limitations - it asks you to use only IE6 and above (That’s rather strange, because the rest of the world is out to kill and stop using IE6 any minute), utilizes platform-dependent technology, gives you no instructions on what to do and how to go about using the service, and is just a very, very primitive user experience, at least for those who aren’t as web savvy.

I hate to come down harsh on ISRO’s brightest scientists, who we all know, do this only for their love of the country and not for any financial gains. They do this with most meager resources, with little guidance from the government and the universities, and given a proper environment and backing, could probably move planet earth, not just google earth. But I cannot understand how little regard ISRO’s leadership and its backers in the government seem to have for the Bhuvan team and its scientists. It is the government’s attitude and lack of support that clearly makes the Bhuvan app look like poor man’s google earth. That’s a shame, because to take Google on with such audacity and boldness, would by itself qualify these mad scientists for some well-deserved medals. But the immature and ill-timed release release of an ill-prepared app, is pure unnecessary braggadocio that is more politics than science.


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2 Comments so far

  1. Bhuvan, India’s Google Earth – Experience of logging onto Bhuvan.nrsc.gov.in on August 21, 2009 8:33 am

    [...] Source: Its IndiaTime [...]

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