Google Temporarily Removes Map Maker

When life gives you apples….make a doodle of the Android mascot taking a wizz on it; thanks a lot internet.

Following the recent discovery of what some users of Google’s Map Maker have secretly implemented on some of the maps, Google has decided to temporarily remove the feature. This follows the aforementioned image being inserted into the scenery, along with a nearby image criticising its review policy.

Now, when a user tries to access the feature, they are notified that it will no longer be available. Google has not clarified how long it will be down for, but it has been confirmed that it is in direct relation to the recent ‘attacks’ with the scenery additions. It has been added that it is working on ways to moderate any additions to the maps. Previously, it was left to the community and an automated system to keep incidents like this from happening.

“We have been experiencing escalated attacks to spam Google Maps over the past few months,” Kanakarajan wrote. “The most recent incident was particularly troubling and unfortunate — a strong user in our community chose to go and create a large scale prank on the Map. As a consequence, we suspended auto-approval and user moderation across the globe, till we figured out ways to add more intelligent mechanisms to prevent such incidents.”

Google’s product manager for the service, Pavithra Kanakarajan, states “fixing some of this is actually going to take longer than a few days …. we hope to come out of as soon as possible.”

Did you use the feature? How do you feel over its removal? Let us know in the comments.

Thank you to Mashable for providing us with this information.