SINGAPORE — Know of a uniquely Singaporean spot or have a favourite coffee joint that you want to share with others? You can now edit the map of Singapore on Google to add in such information.

The Internet giant has finally launched its editing tool — a crowdsourcing initiative that allows users to add information to its mapping service — in Singapore, urging the local community to “start sharing your favourite Lion City nooks and crannies with the rest of the world today”.

Using Google Map Maker (http://www.google.com.sg/mapmaker), users can submit revisions to the map and the submissions will be updated on Google Maps once they have been verified. The verification process is largely community based, in which other users can review the proposed changes, although Google also has its team of reviewers.

Things are changing all the time in Singapore, said Mr Andrew McGlinchey, Senior Product Manager, Google, Southeast Asia. “Buildings are being opened up, torn down, roads are changing, stores are opening and closing. It’s very very hard for us to keep up to date and there’s no better way to do it than to have the people who live nearby be able to just go change it, and keep it accurate that way.”

“We often hear ... people saying ‘Did you know this road is actually closed now? Did you know this building is not there anymore and Google had got it wrong’. We’re trying — we have Street View, we’re licensing data, we’re doing the best we can to keep up. ... We know that people would like to fix this and now when someone says ‘Hey Google, did you know this isn’t right?’ We can say ‘Thank you please be our guest and fix it directly’,” he quipped.

Geographic information that can be added includes that of buildings, natural and political features, as well as roads, rivers and railways. Users can also provide updates on businesses, for instance, if they are no longer in operation at certain locations.

Users can currently edit the maps of more than 200 countries and regions around the world using Google Map Maker, launched in 2005.

In some instances, Google Map Maker has been used for crisis relief.

In the Philippines, which is struck by an average of 20 tropical cyclones every year, places used during crisis, such as health centres, government offices, gymnasiums and public schools used for evacuation, have been mapped by users as part of a project for the Philippine Red Cross. Users have also helped map Atta Abad, in the Gilgit-Baltistan semi-autonomous region of Pakistan, which suffers from flooding.

Noting that in some crisis situations, there may be no good map of an outlying devastated region, Mr McGlinchey said Google taps on the data provided by citizen cartographers.

“We work with say, the United Nations, and been able to give them access to this digital data. They have been able to use that to figure out where to go to help administer care and they can use that as a base map,” he said.