Google is to give users of Street View the chance to edit the service to make it that little bit more accurate.
An 'edit marker' feature has been added, which would allow you to change where businesses are.
So, if you look at Street View and find that the marker for a shop or pub nearby you isn't quite right, then you can lift it up and change its location.
"Sometimes you may find a place in Google Maps that isn't quite positioned where it should be," says the blog.
"Let's say you know that your favourite pizzeria is near the corner but the marker for it appears further down the block. You want all hungry pizza-cravers to be able to find this great spot, so you want to make sure the marker leads them directly to the storefront."
Move marker
The blog continues: "You could use our map editing feature (the 'move marker' edit) to move it to the right place, but moving the marker to the right location is not always that easy, especially in denser urban areas, if the only reference you have are maps or satellite images because you can only get a view from above.
"So now we have added one more very handy reference for making a map marker edit: Street View images. It makes the edit much easier."
This wiki approach is something that Google seems to be embracing more for its services like StreetView.
Just last week, Google also announced that you could also edit the information given to businesses flagged up on Street View.
Your comments (3) Click to add a new comment
harrywood
March 10th 2010
3. If the wiki approach irks you, don't worry. Google won't really be embracing the wiki approach unless they drop the slow moderation steps they employ at the moment.
For a truly wiki-style approach to map making, check out OpenStreetMap.org This not-for-profit project is much more attractive as cause to contribute to, since the data is released with an open license. If you move markers for Google, you might want to think about how much effort to put into this activity, because google will of course keep all this underlying data for themselves and exploit it commercially.
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kpl123
March 10th 2010
2. Do I have the ability to edit m_paul_lloyd's comment as I think its stupid? Thanks in advance.
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m_paul_lloyd
March 9th 2010
1. What a seriously obtuse move this is. Wiki is not accepted by my eleven year old's school as a valid source of reference for home work so why the devil should anyone with an ounce of common sense give it any credibility when trying to explore the world via something as useful as Google Earth?
For goodness sakes, Google works because it is simple and (up until now) sticks to what actually is out there, not some proxy on line dump for failed self publicists ramblings.
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