2022
We’re excited to continue our Ask a Googler series with our next guest, Karolina Pyszkiewicz, a Product Manager on the Google Maps team.
Many of you reached out with some great questions for Karolina. Before we dive into those, we asked her a few questions we thought you’d be interested in to get to know her a bit more. As we shared in our previous post, Karolina works on Google Maps features like Road Mapper and the upcoming desktop road editor mentioned in this recent post. Read on to learn more about her.
Question: Are you a Local Guide? Why or why not?
Answer: Yes I am! I think one of the capabilities that makes Google Maps very powerful is all user generated content from the users that know the world around them best. I know that sharing my view of the world will help other Maps users in their day to day lives, and vice versa.
Question: What type of contributed content do you find most helpful on Google Maps?
Answer: I love seeing other Local Guides’ photos and ratings/reviews of restaurants. It always gives me the most accurate representation of what that restaurant will be like.
Question: If you could visit anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?
Answer: Bora Bora in French Polynesia. It’s been on my list for a while, and my dad traveled there right before I was born and has so many great stories.
Question: What’s the one question your friends and family always ask you about working at Google/on Google Maps?
Answer: “What is it that you do there again?” 🙂
You all also shared so many amazing questions for Karolina as well. Read on to discover what she had to say about Google Maps, Road Mapper, and more.
Local Guides Q&A with Karolina
Editor’s Note: Some questions submitted by Local Guides below have been edited for length and/or clarity.
@SaiflS from Bangladesh asked: When will the upcoming desktop road editor be available worldwide?
Answer: We’re currently rolling out the desktop road editor. Stay tuned to learn more as we will announce updates here on Connect.
@Kashifmisidia from Pakistan, Connect Moderator, asked: Will the road mapping feature be available on Android or iOS?
Answer: On Android you can already edit and add new roads in your area, and we will be rolling out capability on iOS in the future. If you have access to use Road Mapper on desktop, you can navigate to the website on mobile web but you can't draw roads there yet.
@PaulPavlinovich from Australia, Guiding Star and Connect Moderator, asked: I would love to know if the count of roads we've added in Road Mapper is going to add to the "roads added" count in Local Guides?
Answer: At the moment, the Road Mapper count does not add up to the “roads added” count in Local Guides, but our team will take this question into consideration.
@Shola4sure from Nigeria asked: Are Local Guides awarded points or badges when they edit roads?
Answer: Local Guides can earn 15 points for adding roads and 5 points per edit on Google Maps. Roads that are mapped on Road Mapper don’t get points/badges awarded, but almost all submissions to Road Mapper get applied to Google Maps within a few days - it’s a great way to make a lot of impact on the map in places that need it the most!
@LuigiZ from Italy, Connect Moderator, asked: How are mapped roads verified and approved? Is it artificial intelligence (AI), human, or both?
Answer: Like most contributions on Google Maps, we use a combination of local operators and automated systems.
@Jesi from Argentina, Guiding Star and Connect Moderator, asked: How are the areas that we get on the challenges chosen? How do you know which roads will need to be added on the Map and when?
Answer: The challenge areas are chosen based on our estimations of where there are a lot of people living in the world with a large amount of their road network missing from Google Maps. Additionally, we listen to the common countries requested from our users, so if you have any suggestions of what you’d like to see please send a feedback email to roadmapper-feedback@google.com.
@Ewaade 3A from Nigeria asked: Will the challenges change with the more challenges a person completes?
Answer: The challenges are chosen based on our estimations of where there are a lot of people living in the world with a large amount of their road network missing from Google Maps. As Road Mapper users complete challenges, we will remove them from the page, and keep adding new ones. If you have any suggestions of future challenges you'd like to see, please email roadmapper-feedback@google.com!
@davidhyno from Italy asked: Will it be possible to include footpaths in the future?
Answer: While you cannot currently add footpaths, we will consider this capability in the future of the tool.
@LaloPadilla from Mexico, Guiding Star, asked: How are the dotted or solid lines chosen between the biking/walking trail road type? There are some walking areas in which biking is forbidden.
Answer: The solid and dotted lines are generated by a mix of automated models, operators, and authoritative data. If you see something that looks like it’s classified incorrectly, you can flag this for our team. On desktop, you can do so by going to maps.google.com --> click the hamburger icon --> click "Edit the map" --> click "Wrong information" --> click on the biking/walking trail on the map --> click "Other" and add a note on the change.
@Amiran from Iran asked: What is the best practice to report a detailed road such as one-way traffic road or not-public road? Is a complete detailed note helpful?
Answer: If you are adding/editing roads on your Android phone, you can actually click ‘Edit map’ -> ‘Add or fix a road’ -> and ‘One or two way’ to report a one-way traffic road or ‘Road is private’ to report a private road that is signposted or gated.
Many of you also shared some great suggestions and ideas that have also been shared with the team. As always, we also encourage you to submit ideas like this on the Idea Exchange here on Connect.
Stay tuned to hear more about the next Googler in our series soon! Want to see other posts in our Ask a Googler series? Read previous posts below:
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