The Inquisitr reports that Google has launched user editing of Maps. Users of maps in some areas where Google is currently lacking detailed information, such as Cyprus, Barbados and Iceland, can now add names for roads and other features using Mapmaker. Other users then moderate submissions to help ensure accuracy. Allowing user editing of sparse maps is a quick way to add more detail to them but it is rather risky.

Imagine that a friend and I want to cause havoc in Cyprus by renaming the roads:

As you can see, I can submit the label ‘Horrible smelly road’ as a road name. Then, my friend can approve my edit. In no time we can rename all the roads on Cyprus!

This highlights the problem with wiki-style editing of maps. You don’t just want maps to be accurate, you need maps to be accurate. While it’s easy to accept that Wikipedia will sometimes get things wrong, when you’re looking for the quickest way to a destination you don’t want to discover someone’s renamed all the roads in town after characters from The Sopranos.

While there are always pedants out there who will spend their time correcting erroneous entries on Mapmaker (as they do on Wikipedia) I’d prefer Google to invest in better maps of small islands than relying on ‘the community’. Let’s see how it goes…