Map Maker Update - November 21, 2012

[Sneha]

Hi Mappers,

As we continue to improve Google Map Maker for mappers around the globe, we are pleased to introduce some product additions as well as issue fixes. Highlighting this release is the launch of Google Badges, to recognize the achievements of all of you, our wonderful mappers. You can post your thoughts and suggestions on this release here.

The following issues reported through forum and issue tracker are now resolved:

Summary	Forum Link	Issue Tracker ID
Road access attribute can now be set using Select a Segment	NA	http://code.google.com/p/google-mapmaker/issues/detail?id=2925

Lets take a look in detail:

Introducing cool badges for our passionate cartographers

We’re super excited to launch the first set of Google Map Maker Badges to recognize your Map Maker achievements. These fun, colorful badges will appear on your Map Maker Profile and next to your name when you edit, review, or comment on a feature, displaying your achievements for everyone to see. You can also share your Badges on Google+ and other social networks. 
Learn more about Badges

Descriptions for categories

You can now see a description for most categories available on Map Maker. These descriptions will show up in a tooltip while creating features, or selecting a new category for an existing feature. All Line Categories are also directed to the respective Help Center page. 

Better category suggestions

The category selection widget has been improved to provide better suggestions as you type a category name. We now use relations among categories to suggest related categories if exact matches are not found. The following list shows some examples of new suggestions that were not shown before:

What you type	Suggested categories
Legal	Attorney, Tax Attorney, Public Notary, Consultant and so on
Cafe	Delivery Restaurant, Ice Cream Shop
Hospital	Medical Center, Mental Health Service, Health Clinic and more
Apartment	Real Estate Agency
Salon	Barber Shop, Cosmetic Dentist, Hair Removal Service and so on
Restroom	Public Bathroom, Public Male Bathroom and so on
Bank	ATM Location

Note: These examples are based on names in the US; they will vary in other countries and languages.

New Categories

We have now added support for the following categories in Map Maker: Bridge, Tunnel, Well, Levee, and Marina.

Better, integrated search results

Earlier, the search results on Map Maker used to vary as compared to searches on Google Maps. 

With this release, we've integrated Maps and Map Maker searches, so your searches on Map Maker will now be similar to those on Maps.

ZIP code auto complete is enabled

ZIP codes will now auto-complete in the ZIP code field as you type. 

Road Access now works as intended

It was noted that the Road Access attribute was not working as intended using the Select Road Segment tool. This is now fixed!

Incorrect deletion of email addresses fixed

We understand that some of the email addresses got incorrectly deleted by the automated system that we introduced for keeping the data between Mapmaker and Maps in sync. This issue has now been fixed and will no longer happen for future edits. In addition, we are currently working on reverting the bad changes done by the syncer bot. Apologies for the inconvenience!


Thanks, and happy mapping!

Sneha, Google Map Maker Team