Google Maps doesn't prevent car accidents, only search accidents

Those of you who follow my Tweets (@TimConneally) know that I got into a car accident yesterday. Nothing too serious, mind you, just a little unexpected voyage into converging traffic. I was hurriedly trying to obey my Google Maps turn-by-turn directions without noticing that the light I was approaching was actually red.

I'm not speaking against Google Maps navigation at all, but the incident successfully brought one of the application's new features to mind: Report Problems in Maps.

"Report Problems" came with the Maps version 3.3.1 for Android update on Monday, which also brought the "What's Nearby?" feature, some new experimental labs: the scale bar, terrain (topographical) layer, "popular categories" (browsable list of category searches when you use the search menu item), a layer button near the zoom controls, and a compass arrow for the map icon.

In my case, Report Problems would not have solved anything. It's not used to report single traffic incidents just yet. However, if I had found myself being routed onto a nonexistent street, or if the directions told me I had arrived, even though I was totally in the wrong place, it could have helped. Report Problems lets users submit mapping errors (street closures), point-of-interest listing errors, address errors, and other routing errors, to improve the overall quality of Google Maps listings.

After reporting an erroneous street or point of interest, you can harness the "What's Nearby?" function to help complete the journey more accurately. Maybe Google suggested a street address that was out of order, which would put you close to your destination, but not quite there yet. Searching for what is nearby could be a quick fix for that, showing that the correct location was actually somewhere else. This sort of thing has the potential to happen quite frequently, since some locations are listed redundantly.

In the early days of personal navigation devices, users would often find themselves pulling up to their destination without actually arriving anywhere. As devices got smarter, and navigation devices with data connections got more common, that became a less frequent occurrence. Now that users can submit mobile error reports, mapping data can be kept even more current and searches can be more accurate.