Official Blog
Insights from Googlers into our products, technology, and the Google culture
Add your local knowledge to the map with Google Map Maker for the United States
April 19, 2011
[Cross-posted from the
Google Lat Long Blog
]
Before
Google Map Maker
—a product that enables people to add to and update the map for locations around the world—only 15 percent of the world’s population had detailed online maps of their neighborhoods. Using Map Maker, people have built out and edited the maps for
183 countries and regions
around the world, and now, due to the contributions of citizen cartographers, 30 percent of people have detailed online maps of the places they live.
Map Maker users have mapped entire cities, road networks and universities that were never previously recorded online. These contributions have been incorporated into Google Maps and Google Earth, so the collective expertise of the Map Maker community benefits the millions of people using these products globally.
Today we’re opening the map of the United States in
Google Map Maker
for you to add your expert local knowledge directly. You know your neighborhood or hometown best, and with Google Map Maker you can ensure the places you care about are richly represented on the map. For example, you can fix the name of your local pizza parlor, or add a description of your favorite book store.
You can help make the map complete in other ways as well, such as marking the bike lanes in your town or adding all of the buildings on your university campus so they appear in Google Maps. We’ve seen incredibly detailed contributions from power users worldwide, including this comprehensive map of
IIT Bombay
. We’re eager to see you add the same level of detail to locations in the United States.
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
To confirm Map Maker user contributions are accurate, each edit will be reviewed. After approval, the edits will appear in Google Maps within minutes—dramatically speeding up the time it takes for online maps to reflect the often-changing physical world. To see examples of what people around the world are adding to Map Maker, you can
watch mapping in real-time
.
In addition to opening Map Maker for the United States, we’ve added some new features for users globally. You can now get a street-level perspective on places with Street View imagery directly in Map Maker, see and edit all points of interest, and find exactly what you’re looking for with advanced search options such as displaying all railroad tracks.
Browsing all points of interest in downtown Palo Alto, California
To learn more, check out our
getting started site
, or start mapping now at
mapmaker.google.com
.
Posted by Lalitesh Katragadda, Tech Lead and Manik Gupta, Product Manager, Google Map Maker
Labels
accessibility
38
acquisition
26
ads
131
Africa
19
Android
59
apps
417
April 1
4
Asia
39
books + book search
48
commerce
12
computing history
7
crisis response
32
culture
11
developers
120
diversity
31
doodles
65
education and research
144
entrepreneurs at Google
14
Europe
46
faster web
16
free expression
61
google.org
68
googleplus
50
googlers and culture
203
green
100
Latin America
18
maps and earth
189
mobile
125
online safety
19
open source
19
photos
37
policy and issues
139
politics
69
privacy
66
recruiting and hiring
32
scholarships
31
search
502
search quality
24
search trends
117
security
36
small business
31
user experience and usability
41
youtube and video
140
Archive
2015
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2014
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2013
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2012
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2011
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2010
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2009
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2008
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2007
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2006
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2005
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2004
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Feed
Follow @google
Follow
Give us feedback in our
Product Forums
.
Follow
