Have you ever been looking for something on Google Maps, only to find your favorite restaurant mislabeled, or an excellent hole-in-the-wall bookstore completely missing? Google users in other parts of the world have been using a tool called Google Map Maker in order to add roads, schools, businesses, and more to Google's mapping database, and now US users are being allowed in on the fun.
According to a post on the official Google Blog, users in the US can not only add descriptions to businesses or fix errors, they can also add bike lanes or entire buildings. Google then reviews each contribution for accuracy, and if they are approved, they will appear in Google Maps 'within minutes.' (Google allows other users to review edits as well, helping to expedite the process. In a way, it's a bit like a wiki version of Google Maps.)
That's just the basic feature set that has been available to more than 180 other countries for some time. Google also announced that it's adding some new features to the Map Maker, including the ability to use Street View within Map Maker so you can be as accurate as possible with your edits. You can also use satellite view, which is especially helpful for adding accurate roads or pathways.
In my short time playing with Google Map Maker here in Chicago, I already managed to approve someone's edits regarding a club that has been closed, change a friend's address from a restaurant to an apartment building, and map out a few bike paths. Map Maker did toss me a few errors when I was navigating around, though—they went away after refresh—so it seems that Google might still be catching up to the influx of new users.
Update: Some have pointed out that Google Map Maker is very similar to OpenStreetMap, and there's some criticism that Google is exploiting its open communities with this update.
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