Google: Map Maker temporarily unavailable – Apparently an apology wasn’t enough. If you recall, Google was forced to apologize for an image uploaded to Google Maps last month by its map development app Map Maker.
The image above showed the company's green Android urinating on the Apple logo. As of today, the company is discontinuing its map development tool, Map Maker, until it can properly respond to cases of malicious use.
Spam modifications to the company's map service have visibly escalated in recent months, to the point that the Map Maker team is having trouble supporting changes made by every user who has access to the tool.
Until they find a way to provide more security and control to the service in question, map editing has been frozen since May 12.
In a post on the company's forum, a team member (Pavithra Kanakarajan) states:
"We believe it's fairer to say that since we don't have the ability to review all the changes at the rate they're coming, we should take a pause."
Google is trying to develop new ways to review changes made through Map Maker, especially after the Android "scandal" .
In the past, control was extremely lax, and each edit had to be manually checked by the people in charge. So it's unclear when the service will return.
You can imagine that developing a reliable control tool would probably take quite some time.
Source: iguru
