On 5th June 2008, Google Kenya unveiled Google Maps for Kenya at Intercontinental Hotel.Google Kenya, established in June 2007 had for 10 months been working on the project. The project, the first in East Africa by Google, involved talented graduates from Kenyan Universities and a team from India.

Google Maps is a Google service offering powerful, user-friendly mapping technology and local information. It provides a highly responsive, intuitive mapping interface with detailed street and aerial imagery data embedded. Map controls can be embedded in the product to give users full control over map navigation and the display of street and imagery data. Additionally, users can also perform map panning through the user of the arrow keys on a keyboard as well as dragging the map via the mouse. These capabilities combine to provide a compelling product. Google Maps today cover over 100 countries across all continents. The maps for Kenya are the first in East Africa for Google. The success of Google maps can be gauged by the fact that more than 500million view ports are recorded every day. This translates to staggering billions of instances of usage every month! The primary driver behind Google Maps huge success globally as a Internet mapping viewer is the ability to customize the map to fit application specific needs. Google maps enables an open API allowing customization of the map output including the ability to add application specific data to the map.