I thought this might make an interesting post since we have been discussing wikipedia in class. What do you think?
According to an article on computer world.com by Heather Havenstein, Google map users in both the U.S and Australia can now edit the locations of their businesses or homes in order to allow others to correctly locate them. The article said the following.
"The program requires a user to search for his home address to find an arrow that will have information about the location. After clicking edit, a user then can move the arrow to the correct location and save it. When anyone else searches for the address, they will see the edited marker at the correct address, Google said."
According to the article Google users will also be protected from ,those individuals seeking to put markers in the wrong spot because their will be a feature that allows users to back track the original marker on the map.
I think that this is a great thing and the only sure way to make sure that the maps provided by Google is accurate. People get lost all the time using maps that they are sure were accurate. I am sure that Google ,maps are no different. Google has come up with a smart idea to make this service that they provide better, and the feature that protects the users from incorrect map location moves will ensure that users feel comfortable using the site. It is very interesting to see how the wiki idea can be applied to more things than just written information.
