Google Map Maker edit tools arrive in UK

Google Maps

UK web users can now use browser-based tools to edit details about the locations listed in Google Maps.

The search giant's Google Map Maker toolkit allows users to suggest amendments to UK maps, which will then be reviewed by other users and the company's staff before they are set live.

For example, the offering lets people add and edit places already marked on Google Maps and include information about new roads, too.

The company first launched the offering in 2008, and rolled it out to countries where the firm had to rely on third-party data to include information on them for Google Maps.

In cases where the data provided missed out information about the local area, users would be encouraged to fill in the blanks using Map Maker.

In a report on the BBC News site, Google said "technical obstacles" had made it impossible for the firm to bring Map Maker to the UK before now.

In a blog post, announcing the UK launch of Map Maker, Satish Mavuri, programme manager at Google, claimed more than 40,000 people across the globe are using the product each month.

"Now it's your turn to help, whether marking trails through Brecon Beacons National Park in Wales, adding all your favourite shops in London's Soho Square or improving driving directions to St. Ives in Cornwall," it stated.

"Drawing your knowledge about world famous tourist destinations or the streets of your hometown, you can now use Google Map Maker to make the map of the United Kingdom more comprehensive and accurate than ever before."

Caroline Donnelly is the news and analysis editor of IT Pro and its sister site Cloud Pro, and covers general news, as well as the storage, security, public sector, cloud and Microsoft beats. Caroline has been a member of the IT Pro/Cloud Pro team since March 2012, and has previously worked as a reporter at several B2B publications, including UK channel magazine CRN, and as features writer for local weekly newspaper, The Slough and Windsor Observer. She studied Medical Biochemistry at the University of Leicester and completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Magazine Journalism at PMA Training in 2006.