Tell Google Maps Where to Find the Front Door of Your House
Google is asking users like you to edit its Maps site to provide more accurate, real world map data.
The little flag that pops up when you run a Google Maps address search doesn’t always appear on the actual building you’re searching for. Sometimes, it’s across the street, on the nearest corner or in the middle of the parking lot. Well, now you can move the flag. Google engineer Seth LaForge explains the Google Maps update on his LatLong blog.
Run an address search, click on the flag, then choose Edit in the pop-up box. You’ll be given the option to drag the flag to a more pixel-perfect location that better represents where the entrance to the building actually is. Of course, if some prankster captures a flag and plants it somewhere else, you can click on "Show original" and correct the error by moving the flag back where it belongs.
It’s interesting to see Google turning to crowdsourcing methods to solve this particular problem. First, there was the incorporation of personalized My Maps data into wider public searches. And now there’s the ability for users to actually "hack the map" to improve its accuracy.
Whether or not this improvement will actually be greeted as another privacy rights swipe by the tin foil hat wearers out there remains to be seen. Either way, don’t be surprised if people start moving the flags for their homes to dummy locations.
We tried this on a couple of workstations. Windows PCs running Firefox were able to move the flags, but using my own Mac G5, also running Firefox, I received a "could not edit map due to technical restrictions" error. If you have the same problem, you can view the "Edit Google Maps" demo on the company’s website.
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