Launched in the US in 2011, and in India before that in 2008, Google Map Maker support is finally being brought to users in the UK. Map Maker brings out your inner cartographer, allowing you to create and edit maps to your heart's content.

The idea of Map Maker is to improve the quality of maps, as citizens can locate, draw, label and provide attributes for local maps. Specifically local neighbourhoods, footpaths, forests, parks and golf courses can be added and edited - places Google's team wouldn't logistically be able to access. 

"Google invites Brits to share and update Google Maps by using their local knowledge and credible local expertise, by helping to update their favourite shops in London’s Soho Square, or Corfe Castle, improve driving directions to St Ives in Cornwall, drawing from their knowledge about world-famous tourist destinations or useful updates of the streets of their hometown," wrote Google. "Google Map Maker will make the maps of the UK more comprehensive and accurate than ever before."

The launch of Map Maker kicked-off as Google employees and community members worked to map out Bletchley Park. For user submissions, Google will look over them for accuracy and will approve them for all users on Google Maps, Google Earth and Google Maps for Mobile, if deemed worthy.

Google's Map Maker was initially launched in 2008 as a way for users in smaller nations to map out their homeland where mapping data wasn't available. According to the folks in Mountain View, in 2006, only 15 per cent of the world’s population had detailed maps where they lived. Now with Map Maker, the number has doubled to more than 30 per cent.