Google suspended Map Maker in May shortly after the discovery that Google’s automated review system failed to detect that pranksters had added an Android logo peeing on an Apple logo to Google Maps.
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She said “as part of the second phase of Map Maker’s reopening, 45 more countries are open for editing starting today”.
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.
Google Map Maker has re-opened after the tool was shut down back in May of this year after Google found that nefarious edits were being approved to maps.
A couple things are different now from when the product was closed for submissions in May.
If the automated system is unable to establish if something is wrong with an edit, it will also send the edits to a Google employee for review. Google has now chosen people to act as regional leads for each region to moderate their area and to ensure only approved modifications to the map are allowed.
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Google did disable polygon editing. To become a regional leader you need to apply, with the requirements of superior mapping skills and enthusiasm for the Map Maker community in your region. Meanwhile, the search engine giant has temporarily disabled the ability to edit or add polygonal geometry, but users can still submit edits for other polygon attributes including names. Polygons on Google Maps are basically shaded areas that show where parks, forest and other areas are. At the time being, Map Maker is not yet open again in Thailand…
