Single language appearance for Google Maps

If you have been thinking sometimes that it was a cluster of information on Google maps due to names appearing in more than one language then with recent announcement for Google maps makes the display lot tidier with single language display. This update was announced on Google Lat-Long blog recently and in results the Google Maps now appear in default single-language as per user selection made in account settings. You can also add more than one language for interface and can switch on the fly.

For Pakistani users, unfortunately, there is no Urdu language selection in interface language list so most probably has to stick to English as secondary choice. However, the maps can be searched for features and directions in Urdu as normal. As you can see from following screen-shots that searching a town or taking directions from one place to another is as usual; provided if the names are available in Urdu language.

Google Map Maker Mappers

Here is the important bit of information for mappers at Google Map Maker from where this all Google Maps data is sourced from. Now it is very important to add the secondary names to the features to make it available in local/national languages. So as per to Map Maker documentation, Preferred name for each language is recommended and the format for two variants of name will be as follows:

• English – Preferred – PirMahal
• Urdu – Preferred – پیر محل

Adding names in English is necessary as it can help users from around the world to understand the Pakistan well in terms of geography and geology. Adding an Urdu and/or local language name is important because of local use and providing a helpful reading for language literate users to pronounce and understand the name correctly.

Announcement source: Single-language labels in Google Maps – Google Lat-Long blog