Google adds new features for sharing user-generated content
By Joyce Chang
Google launched a new maps feature on Wednesday to facilitate mass sharing of user-generated content, including photos, videos and customized maps that people have created about locations worldwide.
Users have been able to create and share customized Google maps for a while, but this feature makes it easier to do so with the public, not just a few select friends, through a special link. Any user who types a city or location to search for in Google maps can click on an “Explore this area” link, which then displays all the aggregated user-generated content for a location.
A post on CNET.com says the following about the new feature:
For instance, a search on San Francisco brings up photos of the Golden Gate Bridge, the city enveloped in fog (a not uncommon sight), and sunsets. There are videos of penguin chicks at the San Francisco Zoo and video from a YouTube user event.
Underneath that is a list of popular searches (such as parking garage, De Young Museum) for the location and then user-created interactive maps, including one showing the scenic 49-mile drive and car chases from the movie “Bullitt.”
Similar to Google Earth, photos are pulled from Google’s location-based image service, Panoramio, and videos are from YouTube.
Google maps have evolved from primarily a navigational tool to include diverse ways of representing information on a map. Other recent additions include the option of placing links to Wikipedia articles within Google maps and a real estate search.
I think Google’s new features add more value to the site to help set it apart, since location-based sites and services sites seem to be hot right now, but I wonder how it will work as more user-generated content is added.
For example, when viewing a Google map of Chicago, I saw plenty of beautiful photos of landmarks that looked like they came from tourist brochures and that gave me a greater sense of each location. But there were also seemingly irrelevant videos that were geo-tagged but had nothing to do with that particular location. If the site becomes cluttered with irrelevant or even incorrect content, will users stop paying attention? It’s both an advantage and a disadvantage that these user-generated features are so open and not really subject to much quality control or administration. Another consideration is the addition of a search by keyword function for the user-created maps. Right now, scrolling through the list of customized maps is manageable, but as more content is added, I can see the value of having a search option.
Other news from Google this week includes its debut of an API that allows developers to use Flash when creating Google maps, which is similar to a feature that Yahoo has had for a while.
View a demo of the new Google maps feature for sharing photos, videos and customized maps:
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