14 DAY TRIAL // Google has relied on volunteers for a long time for its mapping services. Creating an accurate map of the world is hard and expensive. Even if Google would pay for access to all of the map data that is available, its maps would be incomplete and clearly not up to date.
Which is why it relies on local volunteers to fill in the blanks and, in many cases, do all the work, creating a map of not only the main roads and regions, but adding small details such as buildings, ATM machines and other minutiae.
This is what makes Google Maps the powerful tool that it is and it would not be able to offer much data for most of the world if it weren't from the Map Maker program, which enables users to edit the maps and submit their entries for approval.
The program has proven so popular though that Google is faced with another problem, it can't keep up with the number of improvements submitted each day, all of which have to be reviewed and approved by Google employees before going live on Google Maps.
So Google is now outsourcing that as well, respected editors that have contributed a lot of quality work will now get enhanced roles and responsibilities and will be able to review submissions for the region they're active in themselves.
"The Map Maker team is pleased to announce our Regional Expert Reviewer program, giving distinguished mappers increased reviewing capabilities within their state, country, or region of expertise around the world," Robin Anil, Google Map Maker Software Engineer, announced.
"Following a momentous 2009 launch in Eastern Europe, Map Maker mappers hit the ground running, particularly in Romania, and with each public map edit requiring reviewing, our internal reviewers could hardly keep up," he explained.
"This extreme mapping was a happy problem for Google, and in seeking a solution, we turned to the real experts: our local users," he said.