Creating Your Own Maps With Google MapMaker

Adding to the democratization of map creation and wikification of mapped data, Google has made available Mapmaker. From the Google LatLong Blog: "Map Maker now allows people to create complete maps for 164 countries across the world. As we expand the launch of Map Maker to more countries, we never forget that for any user it's all about the world they live in." Above is the location of the best bake and shark in Trinidad.

Here's a how to get started in Map Maker page.

I think that this sort of map creation has been available through Google Earth, but there's still a slight disconnect for those folks who don't want nor know how to download the Google Earth geobrowser (like my in-laws). Making maps in a standard browser is now even easier.

Edited 12/22/08

So I tried out a post/placemark showing one of my most favorite places to eat, Richards at Maracas Beach in T&T. I placed the placemark and got back a response. Surprise! Someone is watching out for accuracy!

Action : Comment
Remarks : Hey, all that I could see there is water, are you sure about the location of this edit, if not please undo this.
signed, Google Map Maker

My bad. I tried again.

Action : Comment
Remarks : Hi, I am not able to locate the feature from the image.. Are you sure about the location???
signed, Google Map Maker

Wow! And I call myself a GIS guy. OK. So when I turned ON the satellite photos I was able to see that I was NOT in a place where there could be a yummy shark and bake shack because I was located in a forest. Again, my bad. I tried once more and, TA DA!, I think I got it right because the Google Map Maker didn't get back to me and here is the placemark (below). I do like knowing that there's some quality assurance/quality control to Google Maps, don't you?