Google Student Blog: Add detail to your campus with Google Map Maker

Student Blog

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Add detail to your campus with Google Map Maker

April 19, 2011

When a visitor asks you for directions to a building at your university, you can probably help them find any location on campus. Students in over 180 countries and regions around the world have been able to share this knowledge using Google Map Maker, a product that lets you add your local expertise for millions of users to see in Google Maps.
With today’s launch of Google Map Maker for the United States, we’re excited for students in the U.S. to add that expert campus knowledge to the map and create detailed, up-to-date reflections of their universities. You can mark the academic buildings on your campus, trace the shapes of athletic fields, or move your local coffee shop to the right spot.
To give you an idea of exactly what other students (and alumni) have done with Google Map Maker, this detailed map of IIT in Bombay was created entirely through the contributions of the Map Maker community.

Indian Institute of Technology Bombay

Now students in the United States can add the same level of detail and comprehensiveness. Even if your campus is mapped out already, you can add paths and shortcuts across campus, or update your favorite local businesses near campus. To confirm the accuracy of user contributions, each edit in Map Maker will be reviewed, and if approved, will then appear on Google Maps within minutes.
To check out real-time mapping examples by users around at world, visit mapmaker.google.com/pulse. You can learn more on our getting started site, or start mapping now at mapmaker.google.com.
Posted by Kaushik Sridharan, Software Engineer