Google Map Maker

It is getting hard to keep up with the pace of developments from the Google Maps team. Today's huge development from Google Maps is the ability to edit Google Maps.

Google Map Maker is a new service that allows users to contribute and edit map information for certain regions. With Google Map Maker users can locate, draw, label and add map features, including:

• Borders and regions (states/provinces, districts/administrative regions, cities, neighborhoods, etc.)
• Road networks
  
• Places of interest
• Local businesses
• And many more features like railways, waterways, events and reviews
  

In effect Google Map Maker is borrowing the concept of OpenStreetMap for collaborative mapping (the big difference to OpenStreetMap is that any submitted data will not become open source but will become owned by Google). As such any submitted content may be edited by other users or moderators .

Google Map Maker is separate from Google Maps and any additions you make to the map will not appear immediately on Google Maps. However it is clear that Google hope to get useful mapping data from the community and say that "at a later time, this content may be published in Google Maps for others to see and use."

Currently editing is available only in these countries:

• Antigua and Barbuda
• Bahamas
• Barbados
• Bermuda
• British Virgin Islands
• Cayman Islands
• Cyprus
• Grenada
• Iceland
• Jamaica
• Netherlands Antilles
• Pakistan
• St. Kitts and Nevis
• St. Lucia
• St. Vincent and the Grenadines
• Trinidad and Tobago
• Vietnam

To help users with this new service Google have produced a Google Map Maker Getting Started Guide and a User Contributed Help Site.

Via: Google LatLong Blog
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Google Maps Mashups: Mexico, Barbados, Dominican Republic, Belize

Puerto Vallarta Hotel Map (Mexico) - This mashup for the vacation hotspot of Puerto Vallarta will let you scope out resorts, view photos and check hotel information.

Punta Cana Hotel Map (Dominican Republic) - This tourism mashup shows accurate locations of resorts in the Dominican Republic vacation destination of Punta Cana. Includes photos, hotel information, and useful links.

The creator of both of these above mashups has this to say about the effort to create them: "Both mashups were labor intensive since all hotel databases had inaccurate lat/lon for many hotels. So my solution was to zoom in and look for each hotel. But since we are looking at rooftops, it was difficult to determine which property was which. I finally found the one characteristic that is unique for each hotel - the odd shaped (and unique!) swimming pools that both destinations have!"

Barbados By Map:

Barbados By Map is a great mashup that will help you get acquainted with this island nation. If you're heading to Barbados on holiday locate Airports, Towns/Villages, Beaches, Cultural Centers, Dive Sites, Golf Courses, Natural/Eco Attractions, Nightclubs and many more attractions and places of interest. If you're planning on staying at a resort, use this mashup to get a little adventurous and plan an excursion of your own! [Via ProgrammableWeb]

Belize: BelizeMapia - Explore Belize with photos, and videos plotted on a Google Map. Features information about hotels, attractions, restaurants and real estate.

More Google Maps exploration for the area:

Don't forget that Google Maps now has updated street/road maps for the following countries in this region: Aruba, Bahamas, Belize, Bermuda, Costa Rica, Cuba, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and Panama

Explore this region further using Wikimapia, or check popular locations in each of these countries by looking through this list of countries on Satellite-Sightseer.com or use these Google Mapplets: Flickr & Panoramio geotaggedphotos, WeatherBonk and Wikipedia
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