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Google To Reopen Maps To User Edits, With an Anti-Abuse Plan

Posted by timothy on from the only-advanced-trolls-need-apply dept.

jfruh writes: When Google opened up its Maps to user edits, a lot of useful information got added — along with plenty of spam and outright abuse, some of it obscene, which led to the program being shut down. Now the company is planning to reopen things to user input, recruiting local mappers that they're calling "regional leads" to filter out problematic content.

5 of 28 comments (clear)

  1. Bring back Classic Google Maps! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Don't care about user edits.

    Bring back the old interface.

    The new interface gets in the way of so much. The "Classic Google Maps" was a well designed interface that worked really really well. Except for one thing: when you clicked to search on something it didn't automatically give you a search result for a place on the map that you could see. I'm sure that didn't help Google make money as much as the new one does.

    The "New Google Maps feedback" has obviously been ignored because Google have not responded to any of the issues that they listed but users continue to ask for it. I wonder why?

    A tip for how to go to your mapping website of choice:
    1) Start with www.google.com
    2) Enter into the search bar "bing maps" or "mapquest"
    3) Click on the link to go to Bing Maps or Mapquest

  2. Did they improved the GUI? by martiniturbide · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Compared to OpenStreetMap.org the Google Maps GUI to include elements and areas was falling behind. Did anybody knows if the GUi was improved on the last months?

  3. Re:Great plan by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 3, Insightful

    >> Reddit, but with maps

    My first thought was "Wikipedia, with maps" (Shudder)

  4. Re: Bout damn time! by Infiniti2000 · · Score: 2

    OSM has similar issues. People who add to OSM are often morons about what they add. Creating new types like "yes" instead of using actual types. Translators from OSM to something more useful like a file geodatabase or shapefiles often get the geometry wrong, too. For example, creating a linear lake (the perimeter) rather than a more appropriate polygon. So, OSM has significant issues when trying to use it for non-casual purposes. On the other hand, it is generally the most complete set and that can help account for its gross deficiencies.

  5. Re:Oh I see... by Chuq · · Score: 2

    Why would someone contribute to copyrighted Google Maps for free, and let a company claim copyright over all of their contributions, and make money on it - as opposed to the open licensed OpenStreetMap, which anyone can use freely?

    --
    - Chuq