Does anyone else find it curious that, more than two weeks after hostilities began, the Google Maps and Yahoo! Maps views of Georgia are still, essentially, blank?

As of this writing, Google’s map shows absolutely no detail within the country — no roads, internal boundaries, or even cities. Meanwhile, surrounding territories in Turkey, Russia and elsewhere are festooned with such information. Yahoo! at least marks out the major cities on its maps site, but nothing more. Georgia is essentially a geographical dead zone as far as these two Web giants are concerned.

Now, I realize that dispatching a goofy-looking mapping car into a warzone isn’t the smartest move. But there’s no need for on-the-ground accuracy right now — all that’s required is drawing a few lines on the map, from established sources, to help viewers identify where the action is. With the latest news of Russian recognition of independence for the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, you’d think Google and Yahoo! would accommodate something that’s bringing some extra traffic to their sites.

For myself, I swiped the above map inset, with fairly good detail on the boundaries for Abkhazia (in northwestern Georgia) and all of Ossetia (in north-central Georgia, including the North region across the border in Russia), from the BBC’s coverage site. Nice to see someone’s thinking about these things.