Google Temporarily Shutting Down Map Maker Following Vandalism

After Google Maps users mis-used Map Maker to draw an Android peeing on the Apple Logo and other hacks, the search giant announced that it will temporarily shut down its online map editor and it'll rethink its approval process.

"As some of you know already, we have been experiencing escalated attacks to spam Google Maps over the past few months. 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 said.

"We believe that it is more fair to only say that if we do not have the capacity to review edits at roughly the rate they come in, we have to take a pause. We have hence decided to temporarily disable editing across all countries starting Tuesday, May 12, 2015, till we have our moderation system back in action."

The company noted that all edits are currently going through a manual review process.

The statement makes it clear that the service isn't going away forever and just shutting down while a new moderation system is under construction.

Google Map Maker is a browser-based online map editor that allows users to add to and edit Google Maps. There are tools for roads, railways, buildings, walking trails, bike paths, parks, lakes, and complex road geometry.