In April, there were some offending edits on some maps that bypassed Google’s automatic filters, and included an Android logo urinating on an Apple logo; which forced the company to disable the system earlier this year in May.
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If you go to Google Map Maker, you can search to see which countries are supported or not. We mentioned back in July that Map Maker was opening back up in August. Namely, Google has chosen “Regional Leads” from each region of the world to moderate their area and ensure only legitimate modifications to the map are approved. There is a huge community of people who love to keep the information on Google Maps up-to-date, and their primary tool for editing is once again open for business.
Another major change with Map Maker is that polygon editing has been disabled.
A couple weeks ago, Google opened up Google Map Maker again for the first time in a few months since they closed it down in May over embarrassing edits.
The regional leads are selected based on the history and quality of their contributions to the Map Maker community and are invited to become the lead for their location. Also, Google banned its polygon editor, which likely was used in creating the robot in the prank.
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According to the Verge, Map Maker allows anybody to make changes to geography and listings on Google Maps which is helpful for keeping local maps up to date but leaves a lot of room for abuse.
