Room for Praise or Disdain from Google Maps

Many of you have used the "My Maps" tab that was launched in April this year, don't even try to deny it, because nobody is going to believe you. If not for planning ahead your route to work, at least just for checking it out when it was the newest and coolest thing on the Internet, but you did use it. And because you're human, you clicked on the user created maps and judged them. There's no reason to be shy to confess.

The one thing that those maps lacked was a way to contact the author and thank him for the work he'd done for you or to shout your discontent, because what he'd done has put you and your fellow joggers, for example, knee deep in mud. I'm not saying it happened, I'm saying it might have. Fret not, Google Maps users, the development team has thought about this and with a slight delay (it would have been normal for this to be there from the beginning) they have rolled out a special page that is attached to every user-created map, where comments can be left and stars can be awarded. I said stars, not shurikens. In case you're not happy, just give a no-star ranking, don't start thinking about battling it out.

There's also been added a "top links" section that will show which websites and blogs are referring traffic to the map, so just check that out, if you want to know who's very appreciative of your work.

If it is an editable map you're working on with several others, you can now use the comments to communicate with your partners, you don't have to use other software or services for that any more. Google's trying to encompass everything under its protective umbrella and I must admit that, so far, it manages. The applications rolled out are constantly being worked upon, the imperfections are corrected, which is not the case of other similar companies that I will not name. A five star rating from me to Google for this one.