Google Map Maker returns to 45 countries including India

Google’s Map Maker, which allows anyone to make changes to the geography of the map, has now released its Map Maker app to more than 45 countries including India. The company re-opened this service after the controversial prank had taken place in May where an Android logo was sported peeing on the Apple logo in Google Maps. According to Pavithra Kanakarajan, Product Manager, Google Map Maker stated, “We have selected mappers in each country as ‘Regional Leads’ to moderate edits done by other mappers in their respective regions. These are users who have demonstrated a clear interest in mapping their areas and will be helpful in moderating edits made by you.” Now the editing tool has been brought back after a span of 3 months, including US, UK, India, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, among others with better community edits. However, Google has temporarily disabled the ability to add or edit geometries of polygons. Users will be able to edit other attributes such as names on polygonal features. As of now, other users from various parts of the world will not be able to access this service until the company finds new regional leads. Kanakarajan, says, “We are working on identifying Regional Leads in the remaining countries and will open them for editing as and when we select enough Regional Leads.”