Google has issued a call to the users of its map service in the US to add more details. Over the years, Google has been predominately focused on the expansion of the international maps, because they were already pleased with the data they had for the United States. Since most of us are currently using Google Maps for our navigation needs, they were confident that their maps were fully incorporated and comprehensive.
Despite this, they believe they can get better information from the people who use the map service every day.
Google has issued a call for voulenteers who are willing to mark the hangout spots on a particular street or name the buildings on a university. Mapmaker from Google is open for changes to be suggested and goes a step further than the typical interactive map.
What this will do, essentially, is turn Google Maps into it’s own location based social network and I will even go ahead and predict the incorporation of +1 into the street view, allowing you to add points to locations you liked, so that the next person to travel through will see “ratings” for a particular hang out spot or location. Google recently announced the consolidation of Hotpot into Google Places, and began offering incentives for social interaction with clients by Google staff members.
With Google and Facebook running neck and neck in the battle for the number one spot, it would appear that Google is trying to take what made them popular and combine it with some of the things that makes Facebook popular, in the hopes of edging them out.
