Google Shuts Down Map Maker Following Hacks

Errorcod3 writes: Google has temporarily shut down Map Maker while it works on a way to stop people from inserting pranks into its maps. A statement from Google explains that the service isn't going away, just shutting down while a new moderation system is worked on. "Given the current state of the system, we have come to the conclusion that it is not fair to any of our users to let them continue to spend time editing. Every edit you make is essentially going to a backlog that is growing very fast," Google's Pavithra Kanakarajan wrote. "We believe that it is more fair to only say that if we do not have the capacity to review edits at roughly the rate they come in, we have to take a pause. We have hence decided to temporarily disable editing across all countries starting Tuesday, May 12, 2015, till we have our moderation system back in action."

Comments

Huh"?

[Lunix Nutcase]

In what way was this a "hack"?

Because ... crowd source?

[gstoddart]

Honestly, isn't this kind of an inherent thing with crowd sourced data?

It seems kind of dumb to on the one hand think you'll get everyone to help populate your data for free, and on the other hand that you'll get perfectly valid data in all cases.

Congratulations, you've opened up something as a free for all .. the anarchy, graffiti and pranks are an inherent part of that.

WTF to corporations think, crowd sourced data would be magically free, lucrative, and error free? Because that would be stupid.

I rank this as a big giant "no freakin' kidding". This is what happens when you expect the intertubes to make you a commercial product.

Re:Because ... crowd source?

[gstoddart]

LOL, have you seen the internet before? Or people for that matter?

Because, really, the aggregate behavior of the internet is only slightly less mature than an 11 year old with ADHD.

For as long as there have been humans, if you have an open, anonymous forum, you will get this kind of stuff.

The idiocy is pretending the world will magically behave to standards of being "adults" just because you think they should. In fact, that's bordering on irrational, because it's simply not founded in anything.

If you want nice things, make 'em yourself .. don't rely on the fucking internet to do it for you. And sure as hell don't be surprised when someone puts in a penis joke.

Humans are collectively base, puerile, childish, obscene, intelligent, contradictory, funny, stupid, smart ... and everything else you can imagine.

Deal with it.

I'm firmly of the opinion that any crowd sourced data both should and will have dick and fart jokes. Because it's funny, and it demonstrates that the idea of expecting humanity to conform to your standards of behavior is idiotic, and completely ignorant of reality.

To most people the internet is a toy, a diversion, a source of amusement ... that Google wants us to write them a product they can use to sell more ads ... that's not our damned problem.

The internet is one thing, and one thing only: a Steaming Heap of Innovative Technology, in the hands of a billion poo-flinging monkeys.

Don't expect it to trend towards mature and erudite behavior. So far society hasn't done that on balance either.

Re:Because ... crowd source?

[tlhIngan]

Or, and I'm just spitballing here, people could be adults and not think they're being cool and edgy by putting a dick somewhere on a map. Personal responsibility and all that.

Most likely it's because of those well-publicized dick images on the map. And the famous Android-peeing-on-Apple image. And a few others out there.

Quite likely what Google wanted was a way for its maps to stay updated, and what it ended up with was a virtual bathroom wall, with the exception that not only is it useless, it makes Google's map data even worse than useless if Google tries to rely on it for navigation or routing purposes.

"Turn left onto Penis way, then right onto Vagina Road".

Then there might be a concerted effort to "google-bomb" Google Maps and force a bunch of people down side streets that were reclassified as thoroughfares and all that.

The funny thing is - OpenStreetMap doesn't seem to suffer from this problem, despite it crowdsourcing all the map data.

Re:Because ... crowd source?

[swillden]

TLDR: there are more assholes than hobbyist cartographers.

Actually, I don't think there are. Keep in mind that MapMaker isn't new; it's been open for years and working reasonably well. There's just been an uptick in usage (valid and vandalism) that has swamped the old moderation system. So, they need to improve the moderation system, then it'll be back on line.

They didn't review this...

[Anonymous Coward]

updates prior to making them live. Seems like a failing on Google's part to not put in a review system for all map updates. Its not a hack, they used the system as it was designed to make updates.

Victim of success

[bigpat]

Wikipedia has gone through similar growing pains in the past which they dealt with successfully. Slashdot... Seems you just need to balance out the contributions with a couple levels of crowd sourced reviewers. Make people that are contributing to Google Maps review 5 map edits in the area for instance. It shouldn't be a big deal. I recall trying to get a local park listed on some maps in the days before Google Maps and Open Street Maps... it used to take years to get sorted out and relying on "official" maps just made the issues worse because nobody in city or state government gave a damn.