• Reuters, Thursday, April 5, 2007 10:45 AM

Google, Inc. has opened up mapping tools to its customers, giving away tools that let users customize Google Maps. This means pinpointing certain locations like restaurants or hotels, drawing routes, attaching photos and video to existing online maps.

Google Maps has long been open to professional programmers to tinker as they please, but the new tools, called MyMaps, make the process much simpler for the layman. "Who better to create maps than local experts?" Jessica Lee, product manager for Google Maps. "MyMaps makes map-making universally accessible to anyone."

Users can also publish their custom maps so others can find them when they search Google Maps. Users or Google Local will see relevant user-generated MyMaps show up in a special section along with traditional results. If they know hypertext, users can easily publish maps to a social-network profile or blog. The openness of the program could present problems, however, if maps are published directing people to the homes of celebrities or government officials--or worse, maps that provide anyone with information on the location of covert government operations.

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