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Google Maps Will Soon Let You Draw on a Map To Fix It (theverge.com) 50

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
An anonymous reader shares a report: If you've ever been frustrated by a road simply not existing on Google Maps, the company's now making it easier than ever to add it. Google will be updating its map editing experience to allow users to add missing roads and realign, rename or delete incorrect ones. It calls the experience "drawing," but it's closer to using the line tool in Microsoft Paint. The updated tool should be "rolling out over the coming months in more than 80 countries," according to a blog post. Currently, if you try to add a missing road, you can only drop a pin where the road should be and type in the road's name to submit that information to Google. The new tool should make it easier to not only add missing roads, but to make corrections such as fixing a road's name or its direction (for example, if the road is one-way but Google Maps says it isn't).
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Google Maps Will Soon Let You Draw on a Map To Fix It More

Google Maps Will Soon Let You Draw on a Map To Fix It

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  • Can we get independant verification. (Score:3)

    by jellomizer ( 103300 ) on Thursday March 11, 2021 @01:20PM (#61148340)

    In the 2020's crowd source has become Troll sourced. So that private driveway of that guy you don't like, becomes labeled as a shortcut to a major highway. Or roads to your business gets labeled so you will get more traffic to your store, or more damaging, where say roads are being marked which may lead to a boat drop off zone.

    Too many people blindly follow these maps, for google to just put in user information may be a massive agent in chaos.

    • Re:Can we get independant verification. (Score:5, Informative)

      by Dutch Gun ( 899105 ) on Thursday March 11, 2021 @01:29PM (#61148386)

      Don't worry. I can assure you, from personal experience, that Google Maps doesn't just blindly accept whatever information people enter. Whatever the magic incantation for getting a change accepted is, I haven't yet figured it out.

      • Google Maps Will Soon Let You Draw on a Map To Fix It

        Don't worry. I can assure you, from personal experience, that Google Maps doesn't just blindly accept whatever information people enter. Whatever the magic incantation for getting a change accepted is, I haven't yet figured it out.

        You have to be the President a threaten to fire everyone at NOAA ... :-)

      • Enroll as an editor for Open Street Maps. My accepted submissions to OSM appear on Google a few days later. Google may be protective of their intellectual property but don't mind stealing from others.

    • My thoughts exactly. How long before a Reddit mob starts routing highway traffic to Alexis Ohanian's house?

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Presence Eternal ( 56763 )

      This is probably just Google Map Maker all over again. In that it will be hidden, hard to use, and ignored. Fuck you Google.

    • In the 2020's crowd source has become Troll sourced.

      You can't prove I don't live in Penistown (not to be confused with Penistone) where every road looks like a penis from above.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      It's reputation based - if the map updates you submit are generally good ones then you're more likely to be accepted. Though I think acceptance can take time.

      Sometimes you also have to force it - Google Maps has interior maps of places like malls and such, but they're sometimes wrong. I've had to continually correct one until I decided to make a new entry (complete with photos) of the store that was where Google said another store was, which allowed me to actually move the store to the right location on the

      • I'm curious how that would work. I've rarely come across something on Google Maps or Waze that isn't correct, so I don't know if there will be enough data to safely classify someone as reliable. It's not like Wikipedia where a person can edit enough articles to be deemed reliable.

        Now, if they're connecting it to your social media scores (This person has excellent karma on /. so they are probably reliable, it might be possible, but that's a somewhat scary thought of moving to a social score based upon your i

        • It's not like Wikipedia where a person can edit enough articles to be deemed reliable.

          Not only, but Wikipedia is relying heavily on information supported by sources ([citation needed]).
          This can be done with very good reputable primary sources such as scientific articles and reviews - although those can be behind a paywall, it's not very difficult to obtain them (I wasn't necessarily speaking about scihub. One can also rely on the local university library having some access. Or just ask the authors nicely).

          Whereas, for mapping purpose, reputable primary source would probably satellite imagery

    • And then there will be the people who draw inappropriate body parts because it's "funny."

    • I'll come over and explain to you in person why this isn't a problem. According to Google Maps, you live on Roady McRoadface.

  • I've been trying for several years to fix the name of the park across the street from my house. Maybe I can draw them a clue?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gwjgwj ( 727408 )
      It may be wrong on purpose. Copyright trap.

    • I've been trying for several years to fix the name of the park across the street from my house. Maybe I can draw them a clue?

      Only if it's Candlestick Park, Col. Mustard ...

  • ...we could organize people all around to draw on Google maps not-existing roads located in a vey remote region, and have them inserted into the database ? Great...

    • They have satellite imagery (or low-flying aircraft imagery) to corroborate with. And yeah - maybe tomorrow, that street view car will be roaming through Siberia to be sure...

  • This won't in any way be abused by trolls, people with a grudge, business competitors, or anyone else who might decide to manipulate the maps.

  • And it seems to me that googlers periodically borrow from it.

    Also Yandex once upon a time had "People map" project where people were allowed to add features to Yandex maps.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by hAckz0r ( 989977 )

      Yes, I got tired of outdated but "new" Nuvi maps and started using OSM instead. Even if OSM maps are not up-to-date I at least have the ability to fix the problem for the next person.

      I think Google should put out an app where a person can select to record their traveled route, and if there was any discrepancy between the road and the map, you simply push a button to upload the track data and have the Google computers analyze the latest satellite imagery to locate the discrepancy. Once a match is made, you

  • I remember you use to be able to edit the maps in Google for personal use and fix roads that would be looked at by someone else.

  • 10 years ago

  • This is free labor - I'm not going to work for Google unless they pay me.

  • Something that Google Maps still lacks, and this change would make more pertinent, is a locked gate symbol. Ideally, there would also be a place to put contact information, for the gate, with the symbol.

    • I don't think that's ever a problem I've run into.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by eepok ( 545733 )

      I'd like that or a "gate-arm" showing that only authorized vehicles are allowed on a road.

    • A way to mark all the fake signs on roads saying "Google Map is wrong. Not a trhough road". Especially in Bay Area lots of Tony communities dont want the common people to take shortcuts through the public roads of their communities so they put these fake signs up.

  • OpenStreetMap has had this feature for years. As a collaborative platform, it is essential (and they have a way to moderate changes).
    I've used this to update local park boundaries and access.

    • Be aware that copying OSM into Google Maps and vice versa violates the copyright of both.

    • Having been using OSM for years now, in Europe, Canada and the US.
      On old tablets, this gives you the widest of screens.
      Always up-to-date.
      Free.
      And of course a way to update it yourself, with troll filtering also crowdsourced.

      Actually I don't understand why people try something else, outside very specific cases like 'my camper van is 3m high and I want to filter passages with lower height', which, actually, did not work better on dedicated hardware last time I checked.

  • How about instead of a microsoft paint type line tool, that the app actually makes you drive the route that you are intending to add as a new route, tracking your movement on gps. At least it will be more accurate.

    • the app actually makes you drive the route that you are intending to add as a new route, tracking your movement on gps

      Don't worry, they do that already.

  • Every country is penis shaped.
  • Hopefully in addition to adding roads it'll let you mark that they don't exist or are blocked. Bonus if you can do that in time increments such as "blocked for the next hour". Every time I get to a road where there is an accident, or some other reason it's blocked temporarily, if you turn around or take a side road it usually just ends up telling you to do a U-turn or it leads you on a path that take you back to where you got stuck. If I could simply tell it "you can't go this way for the next hour" and hav
  • Google used to have this facility . They called it Mapmaker. They stopped it about 5 years back. Now its back. Any idea why?

  • Good feature-until they eliminate it w/no notice! (Score:3)

    by uncqual ( 836337 ) on Thursday March 11, 2021 @06:48PM (#61149744)

    I've submitted a few fixes to Google maps over the years and all were accepted - although sometimes it took a couple months to receive notification that the problem had been fixed. I probably would have submitted more (and in one case, the correction would have been more complete in one correction I got made) if I could have easily "drawn" the correction so this seems like a good thing.

    I have, however, included a lot of compelling evidence with some of those changes which may help my 100% acceptance rate. In some cases, I've included links to county plat maps that show there is no easement identified for a faux road that crosses private land and links to street view images that show no street signs or improvements or other signs of a road being a public road (instead of a dirt path that a private owner has allowed select people to use with permission). Other times when the address lookup failed (send me to a similarly named street in a nearby city), I included streetview links to street signs on the correct street in the correct city and links to USPS address lookup showing that the address was a valid mailing address.

    Hopefully this doesn't increase the number of bogus fixes submitted thereby causing Google to be less careful about accepting changes due to increased volume.

  • So they're making it easier to submit corrections that can be subsequently ignored right? I have several features in my area (missing roads, incorrect labels, etc) that I have repeatedly submitted detailed corrections regarding over a period of years, often with their own street-view/aerials supporting that something is wrong, and they remain unfixed. I think they need a little more work on their implementation workflow before they spiffy up their reporting functions.

  • I have no idea why one would do Google's work for them. Just improve OSM maps and call it a day.

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