X

Google Maps adding photos

Candace Lombardi
In a software-driven world, it's easy to forget about the nuts and bolts. Whether it's cars, robots, personal gadgetry or industrial machines, Candace Lombardi examines the moving parts that keep our world rotating. A journalist who divides her time between the United States and the United Kingdom, Lombardi has written about technology for the sites of The New York Times, CNET, USA Today, MSN, ZDNet, Silicon.com, and GameSpot. She is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not a current employee of CNET.
See full bio
Candace Lombardi

If you have ever driven below 14th Street in Manhattan, anywhere in Boston or in the old cities of Europe, you are probably very aware that maps are only clues to finding your destination, not directions.

Roads descended from wagon trails can often be hidden down alleys, unexpectedly become one-ways, meander indiscriminately and start up again one block over from where they paused.

For this reason, many people direct by landmark, with street names in parentheses. And good luck if you are getting your directions from a non-human.

Google is adding photos to its Google Maps local search and Google Maps pages to solve this problem, according to the Google Blog.

Business owners can upload photos of their buildings and storefronts for free at the Google Local Business Center home page.

While it seems like Google has added some photos, there aren't many that I could find. The billboard and fire station that help you find the one-way Isabella Street in Bay Village, Boston, for example, has no photos and is still pretty hidden by trees on Google's hybrid map.

This may be another case of Google asking users to collectively help them build.