A woman hit by a car while walking on a route provided by Google’s online mapping service is suing the Internet colossus for not recommending a safer path.

Lauren Rosenberg of Los Angeles is asking a US District Court to order the California-based firm to pay her “in excess of” 100,000 dollars for injuries and emotional suffering caused by the accident on January 19, 2009.

Rosenberg used Google Maps on a Blackberry smartphone to chart an approximately two-mile (1.2 kilometer) course from one address to another in Park City, an upscale ski town in the state of Utah.

The path proposed by Google included a stretch of Deer Valley Drive, a local highway, which lacked sidewalks and had cars zipping at unsafe speeds, court documents contend.

“Google failed to warn (Rosenberg) of said known dangers and instead instructed her to use that dangerous path,” attorney Allen Young said in a copy of the lawsuit posted online by Search Engine Land editor Danny Sullivan.

An AFP check on Tuesday using a personal computer resulted in Google Maps providing a choice of two routes, one that essentially avoided walking along the highway, and a warning that sidewalks might be missing.

News of the suit has prompted a pithy online discussion regarding the degree to which pedestrians are responsible for watching out for their own safety when it comes to walking along streets.

Yahoo has promoted one its top engineers, Raymie Stata, to the role of chief technology officer.

The Internet company announced Stata’s promotion Thursday, which marked Aristotle Balogh’s final day in charge of Yahoo’s technology department. Balogh told Yahoo in early April that he intended to leave the company for personal reasons.

Stata, 42, has been working at Yahoo since 2004, most recently as chief architect. He will report to Blake Irving, who was recently hired as chief products officer for the Sunnyvale, California, company.

JAIPUR: In an effort to popularise online retail shopping in India, Google India has decided to extend free support and advertisement offer for entrepreneurs in Rajasthan on its portal, Google Search.

“We will offer free expert support to help entrepreneurs build an online advertising campaign to grow their business through ‘Jump Start’,” Google India Head of Online Sales Sridhar Seshadri told reporters here today.

Rajasthan, a popular tourist destination, is a hub of textile and jewellery exporters and hosts 4 lakh small-scale industries.

Google’s offer will allow the Small and Medium Scale Industries to directly work with Google specialists, who will help them to set up their ‘Google AdWords accounts’ and build a customised ad-campaign to suit their business.

“By extending free support and advertisement offer on Google search in the state, we want to encourage these business to grow and gain from the benefits of internet advertising.

Google search allows them to target customers across the world and ensures that they only pay when their advertisement is clicked on,” Seshadri said.

All business with an online presence (website) will be allowed to register their business with Google India AdWords platform and Rs 2,500 worth of free advertising coupons by dialling a toll-free number.