Google Maps is getting new features allowing users to add local knowledge and correct mistakes, as it works to build out reviews and fix missing or rerouted roads. A new content type in Google Maps is being added over the coming weeks, with photo updates joining rather than replacing reviews.
Reviews of points of interests and businesses have long been part of Google Maps, and reviewers have been able to add their own photos as part of that. What this new feature will do is make the process of adding a photo easier, since you won’t have to append a full review and rating.
It’ll be found in the “Updates” tab when you’re looking at a Google Maps place; both businesses and other users will be able to share their pictures. An “upload a photo update” button will allow you to do the same.
As for those times when Google Maps lacks details like roads altogether, Google has new tools there to make adding new – or correcting – existing paths more straightforward. A new Desktop Road Editor for Google Maps can be accessed by clicking the side menu button and choosing “Edit the map.” A new “Missing Road” option pulls up the editor.
From there, you can add in a road by basically drawing a line on the map. Misaligned roads, or ones which have been closed off, can be adjusted or deleted too. Names that are incorrect can be updated, and you can even change the directionality of a road if it’s been switched to a one-way street or vice-versa.
If it’s a temporary change, then the Desktop Road Editor will also for more details around that. For example, you could add dates for when the road would be closed from, and then opened again, plus reasons for the closure, and directions. Google says it will be vetting any modifications before they’re reflected on the public map, though, to make sure of accuracy.
The new Desktop Road Editor for Google Maps will be launching over the coming months, the company says, in the 80+ countries where road updates are already supported.
