Search Marketing Communications

The Google Earth and Maps team have created a new base map dataset that allows Google Maps users to “report a problem” among other new features.

From the Google Lat Long Blog:

“We’ve added a new tool to Google Maps that lets you communicate directly with Google about any updates that you think need to be made to our maps. You’ll find this “Report a Problem” link on the bottom right of Google Maps (you can also find it by right-clicking on the map). Has that new highway on-ramp finally opened up? Do we have an outdated name for your local school? Was Main Street converted into a pedestrian-only walkway? Tell us! Once we’ve received your edit or suggestion we’ll confirm it with other users, data sources, or imagery. We hope to resolve each edit within a month. If you submit your email address, we’ll even keep you posted on our progress.

Just yesterday, I had a problem generating driving directions with Google Maps where a local athletic park had the correct address but an incorrect Zip Code.

Even though Google Maps had the correct street address, the incorrect Zip Code overrode Google Maps ability to generate a correct point A to point B driving route.

In the example below, you can see the business (Mitch Park) address shows a ZIp Code of 73034.

Correct Address Incorrect Zip Code

Since I didn’t know beforehand this was the incorrect Zip Code for the park,  when I attempted to generate driving directions yesterday Google Maps “assumed” my directions were to 1501 East Covell because a East Covell street address coincided with the Zip Code data (and still does) they had for the park.

Mitch Park 73034

Today after editing the listing’ push pin to display the correct address on West Covell,  Google Maps has begun to offer two alternative destinations and routes – one to the East Covell (73034 incorrect Zip Code) location and one to the West Covell address ( the 73003 corrected push pin location).

Mitch Park 73003

Selecting the corrected Zip Code address link on West Covell then produced correct driving instructions to the corrected Park location.

Correct Google Maps Driving Directions

Overall, the speed with which these corrections took place in both correcting the park’s location vis-a-vis its Zip Code and then the subsequent alternative destination driving directions – were quite impressive.

Combined with their new base map dataset and users ability to report problems, the Google Earth and Maps team should be able to deliver a more accurate and up to date Google Maps user experience.

Tags: Google Earth, Google Maps, Push Pin, Report a Problem with Google Maps

This entry was posted on October 7, 2009 at 3:41 pm and is filed under Google Earth, Google Maps, Push Pin, Report a Problem with Google Maps. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.