Google Lets Users Define Their Own Maps

Google Maps has unveiled MyMaps, a new feature which expands Google Maps by letting anyone define and pinpoint locations, define routes, and attach media.

Internet giant Google has added a new feature to its Google Maps offering: MyMaps is intended to let users quickly create custom maps via a simple point-and-click process, using Google Maps as a basis for their own creativity and map-making needs. "With this release, creating maps mashups is now as simple as pointing and clicking," said Google in a blog posting.

MyMaps is now available in ten countries (Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, and the United States) via Google Maps; the service lets users pinpoint locations, draw lines and shapes to connect or highlight areas and points, and describe their map points using text, photos, or even video hosted by Google Video or YouTube. Users can add HTML to further customize their map offerings, and Google Earth can even pull up their maps in the company’s 3-D geographic visualization application.

MyMaps maps can be private and selectively shared with friends and family via email, but MyMaps can also be made public, where they’ll turn up in Google Maps searches along with other maps shared in the KML format, as well as Google Local searches. Maps can be serious, functional, or whimsical: a contributor has already posted a world of notable monster sightings, including Dracula, Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, King Kong, and (naturally) Godzilla. On a more practical level, MyMaps can also be used to create a single map with a user’s most-commonly-searched locations all pre-defined.

Google sees MyMaps as an outlet for users’ creativity, and an overall enrichment of the Google Maps and Google Earth communities, enabling users to narrate their lives and interests on a location-by-location basis and add detailed, rich information to Google’s map offerings.