On its LatLong Blog, Google said: "Google Map Maker is a significant step in our ongoing efforts to engage Google Maps users and equip them with an easy-to-use tool to build high quality maps of their neighborhoods, cities and countries.
"Map Maker allows you and your peers to add, edit and moderate most features you see on maps including roads, lakes, parks, points of interest, businesses, cities and localities. You will be able to trace many of these features using satellite images; as you trace, maps are immediately updated."
The Google Map Maker tool went live yesterday and encourages users to add as much detail as possible about their local area, including building functions - for example, marking out car repair garages, hairdressers, zoos, clubs and more.
It even allows people to add geographical features, such as peaks, hills, ridges and fault lines, as well as locations in which basic necessities like drinking water can be found.
Such features are already available on Google Maps for many countries, but Google has expressed its desire to expand this across the world. By making maps available for parts of the world without comprehensive coverage, such as Cyprus, Iceland, Jamaica, Vietnam, Grenada and Pakistan, Google believes that "the existing mapping data for these countries could benefit tremendously from local knowledge and expertise".
The search giant went on to add that it was "excited" to experience how users interact with the map making programme and the ways in which they will put it to use.
It'll be interesting to see how successful the venture will be - as Google acknowledges, building a map is incredibly complex and time-consuming. However, sites like Wikipedia have flourished - to the surprise of many early critics, in all likelihood - so it's entirely possible that Google Map Maker will enjoy a similar accomplishment.
