Users could also moderate the contributions of others within their neighbourhood. Certain larger features may have taken a long time to appear on the map as they were waiting to be rendered by the server.Ĭontributors could assign areas of the map as their 'neighbourhood', that is an area they know well enough to make detailed contributions to. As users made more successful contributions, their edits were less closely monitored and may have been published on the map straight away. New users' contributions were moderated by more experienced users or reviewers at Google to ensure quality and prevent vandalism.
This approach was not useful in areas with poor satellite imagery, and users consequently created less map data in those areas.
The approach encouraged by users and by Google was to trace features such as roads from the existing satellite imagery. Three kinds of drawing tools were available: placemark (a single point of interest on the map), line (for drawing roads, railways, rivers, and the like) and polygon (for defining boundaries and borders, adding parks, lakes and other large features). In addition, users could add specific buildings and services onto the map such as local businesses and services. Using the find or browse tools, contributors were able to add and draw features directly onto a map where the borders had already been drawn, and could add features such as roads, railways, rivers and so on.