By Steve Ragan Nov 21, 2007, 16:28 GMT
Over the past year, Google Maps has made several advancements. With that said, one of the major gripes from users is that all too often the markers are off the mark when looking for a location. If that has ever frustrated you, Google has offered up something of a solution.
Over the past year, Google Maps has made several advancements. With that said, one of the major gripes from users is that all too often the markers are off the mark when looking for a location. If that has ever frustrated you, Google has offered up something of a solution. (img src: Google)
On Monday, Google announced a new feature on Maps. Google users in the U.S. and Australia can move the little green markers to their correct locations. The feature works with both residential and business addresses. The feature requires that a user search for his or her home address to locate the arrow that holds the information on the address. By clicking edit, the user can move the arrow to the correct spot on the map and save it.
“Of course, we couldn't limit ourselves to just addresses — businesses can be hard to find too. Take your favorite restaurant, for example. Now you can find it on Google Maps and move the marker to its front door. You might just save someone's date with this information! Fixing markers can be downright addictive. I've spent hours using Street View to locate businesses and houses, and then moving their markers,” said Seth LaForge on the Google Maps blog.
According to Google, some listings including hospitals, government buildings or businesses whose listings have been claimed through Google's Local Business Center, are off limits. In addition, some types of edits, such as moving a place marker more than 200 yards from the originating point will require approval before the edit appears on the map.
“The move is consistent with increasing “socialization” or openness of Google and part of a broader effort to obtain fresher and better local data. Allowing the community and business owners to edit and update information is the only viable way to have an accurate database. As diligent as the various providers are in updating and correcting local listings, the commercial databases are full of inaccurate and outdated information,” said Greg Sterling on his blog.
More information is online at:
http://maps.google.com/help/maps/mymaps/create.html
http://maps.google.com/help/maps/edit/promo.html
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