Google Map Maker product, users - what are we about, where are we headed?

[Jayanth Mysore]

Dear users -

As we have all witnessed, there is a lot of discussion in the forum led by Kiran’s message. Kiran - Thanks for your candid thoughts and we wish you the best.

This message is not going to address Kiran's questions.  In fact, we stay away from participating in such contexts. Several users have told us about these issues and we will update the forum when we make real progress. There isn’t much point talking about them, till then.

This message gets to the heart of something more fundamental and important. Our intent is to clarify our position on the relationship between Google Maps, Map Maker and Map Maker users and to provide a bit more clarity on how we operate and where we are headed.

First, this product exists to serve users like you to satisfy your desire to map places you care about better on Google Maps. Specifically, it was founded on the belief that there are users of Google Maps who would be happier to have the opportunity to represent the neighborhoods they care about on Google Maps. That is really it. Please note that we actively consider ways to improve the maps of countries across the world on a regular basis - you will see us doing Street View, Business Photos, just basic data imports to accomplish this goal. Map Maker was launched with the recognition that the world is diverse and ever-changing and there is nobody who knows a region better than the people who live there. Furthermore for people in a locality, no error is a small error, no omission a small one. Hence, the product was launched as a way for people in a locality, who derive pleasure out of being able to represent that locality better to have the means to do it. For a variety of reasons we first launched it in regions of the world where we did not have much of a map. Several of you, outdid our wildest imagination and made your neighborhoods come to life at levels of detail that amazed us. You all continue to.  It is important to reiterate that we have this product running for those of you who derive fulfillment in making your neighborhoods have a better map on Google Maps. This is not a product we have launched to get users to “contribute data to Google”. The difference in perspective, while subtle, is very important.

Next, the issues that have been raised by several of you are valid and important. We thank you for bringing them up and summarizing them in many different contexts. We have deliberately chosen to spend the time actually addressing the core underlying causes for these instead of applying quick-fixes. The engineering team and I have just as deliberately chosen to not come up and offer empty words of comfort. We have - me in particular - made an effort to give you more detailed explanations of how things work and report when one of these core capabilities has been addressed. That is how we will continue to operate. We will communicate on real progress, actual changes.

We empathize with your desire for faster response times. However, all I can tell you is that we work within constraints and are - more than anytime in the recent past - spending more time addressing these core issues. You will start seeing changes, but they may not be exactly what any one of you is looking for - we factor in what we learn from all of you as a group. We have made observations across the board - features, the structure of the RER program, the division of responsibilities between users, GRs and product, the effectiveness of user conferences and are making systemic changes. That’s just how we believe we should operate instead of making quick fixes that don’t last. 

Here are some of the major changes we have undertaken and launched in this regard over this year - none of these are small, and none of these are perfect - but they should clarify what I mean by systemic, major changes

1. Synchronized the data sets between Map Maker and Google Plus local pages and put in place a process for changes to flow instantly.
2. Stabilized the categories pipeline to make sure categories don’t go missing now and then
3. Fundamentally improved/changed the way physical spaces and occupants are modelled
4. Increased user trust levels in reviewing through the RER program
5. Experimenting with numerous modifications to how GRs engage with users - only some of you would have experienced this as these are experiments we run

Besides these, we are at the cusp of launching several sweeping changes to the product which factor in a lot of feedback relating to the efficiency of the review process. Some of these include changes in the approach that GRs will be taking as well in the way they engage in the review process. We are making major changes to several programs for engaging with users - some of these will in fact lead to reduced time on empty talk with users like you whose time we should be more respectful of and more time on actually making edits go live faster for more users.

I’d like share some perspective on the complexity that Map Maker is to help you develop an appreciation for the time it takes to make changes - Map Maker is a product that tries to accomplish what can be modelled as letting a thousand users modify a 747 in mid-flight. For every feature you see and bug fix involved, we absolutely need to ensure that nothing in Google Maps is negatively impacted. So making changes, even with a lot of effort and commitment, will take time. The margin for error and the dependencies we deal with make this a very complicated system, compared to one that is self-contained.

So what’s coming up? We have several large scale changes planned that will be focussed on driving up editing and reviewing velocity for all users - from users who make only a few edits, to those who have deep knowledge about small regions to users who find leading large groups of users across entire countries. These changes will cut across all aspects of the product - features, reviewing approach, growing the community.  When we are closer to rolling these out, you will hear more from us.

I’d like to finish this message by going back to where I started. Our relationship with all of you is strictly as users. The purpose of Google Map Maker is not to grow a group of “volunteer” mappers. It is to give users who find it personally fulfilling, an opportunity to map the places they care about better on Google Maps. We have tried to put in place and continuously experiment with ways to grow a community, and we encourage you all to constructively participate and if you desire, grow the community.

Thanks
Jayanth, on behalf of the Map Maker team

[Jayanth Mysore]

Dear Users -

A clarification - what I meant in the last paragraph has, I fear, been confusing to some of you at least. I'll clarify below.

I had said...

"I’d like to finish this message by going back to where I started. Our relationship with all of you is strictly as users. The purpose of Google Map Maker is not to grow a group of “volunteer” mappers"

The point I tried to make is that we want you to associate yourselves with Google Map Maker if you find it useful to you. We owe you a great product as a user and it is plainly wrong for us to view you instead as a volunteer for adding data to Google Maps. The former makes you Google's customer; the latter makes Google a free beneficiary. The bar for the product is far higher when we treat you all as users.

Hence the language "our relationship with all of you is strictly as users" (i.e. we will never let our approach to users degenerate into one that views users as "free volunteer help to get data").

Thanks,

Jayanth