It is the image that prompted some quick action by the team behind Google’s MapMaker tool to temporarily disallow edits being made on Google Maps. The decision was arrived at as a means of reining in on rogue users. Google had for long relied on its huge community of volunteers who updated its extensive maps catalog since they knew their backyards better than anyone else and could easily add new joints coming up and other places that had previously been overlooked or ignored. However, it is some of its most trusted users who were on the forefront of gaming the system and doing somewhat embarrassing (and hilarious depending on how you look at it) things like the above image.
Through a posting on the MapMaker forums, Pavithra Kanakarajan, the Google MapMaker Product Manager, announces that the ability to edit maps using the tool will be available once again but in phases starting early August. To prevent unfortunate occurrences like the image above from happening or going unnoticed for long, Google will be counting on country-specific moderators who have a good grasp of their locality to assist it in policing the edits made in those particular regions.
We will be selecting mappers in each region and offering them the opportunity to become a “Regional Lead” on Map Maker. Edits made in a Lead’s region will be reviewed by both Google’s automated moderation systems and by the Regional Lead themselves. Google operators will only occasionally moderate edits in these areas.
