It may seem that Google Maps has been the go-to application to locate local businesses and navigate our way around the word since the internet began. However, Google Map Maker, launched in 2008, has been allowing us to provide information to Google Maps – be it adding a location or a road that currently doesn’t appear, moderators would approve or deny any of the suggested moderation’s.
Google plans to migrate all the features of Map Maker into Google Maps, believing that this will streamline the service, with all changes going through one channel. Any edits that are now made on Google Maps are no longer available on Map Maker for moderation, this is to help speed up the editing phase.
As part of a crowd-sourcing initiative, being a local guide allows Google users to earn points by completing tasks, like reviewing a location or adding photos of a location. Benefits include early access to new Google features and products, free Google drive upgrades and testing new Google products before release. In March 2017, Map Maker’s features will transfer over to Google Maps and whilst local guides will remain available it is quite likely that they will merge with Google Maps in the future.
The streamlining makes a lot of sense from a company standpoint. Google will be hoping for more users based on the application as the user experience will be improved, all the features will be available in one place and on one channel.
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