Certain world events get the geographic juices flowing and this was a shot of adrenaline:  Locating Osama bin Laden’s compound.   Soon after President Obama made the announcement that bin Laden had been killed in Abbottabad, Pakistan, the race was on.

Within an hour, there were reports of the compound location in Google Maps, more or less within the city of Abbottabad.  To me, this seemed like an unlikely location unless Osama was into downtown living.  With all that time spent in caves, he seemed more of a suburban guy.  Turns out this was an incorrect location.

A number of hours later, Al Jazeera reported a location along Kakul Road, near the Karakoram Highway.  Again, was Osama really taking advantage of walking distance to the market and movies?   Turns out, no.

There were various other maps posted on Twitter in the ensuing 12 hours but none were correct.  A good lesson in vetting your sources and always filtering information with a critical mind especially in these lighting fast media times.

I had calls from major media outlets worldwide saying they had the general location but were scrambling to locate it specifically. They knew Kakul Road  and within the Bilal Town area.

So who got it right and first?  The New York Times.  No surprises there.  Within minutes of President Obama making the announcement, I sent them LeadDog maps in order to help with this effort.   They worked all night and morning to determine the correct location.   Great journalism. Congratulations.    Here’s a link to their efforts with map, imagery and even  the compound diagram: Osama Bin Laden Compound Map.

Look for updates on our mapserver to Abbottabad in the following days.