Google Maps now lets you draw missing roads and add real-time photo updates

Google Maps has updated how you report new and missing roads on desktop, allowing you to draw them directly onto the map. Fortunately — or unfortunately, depending upon your point of view — there are some safeguards preventing you from just adding a giant penis-shaped "road" in the Australian outback.

Previously when you added a missing road to Google Maps, you could only drop a pin, type a road name, and write a note. Details such as exactly which way the road went, how long it was, and the nature of its curve were all up to your ability to or patience for rendering them in prose.

Now you can simply paint your highways, phallic or otherwise, like the artists of old.

"Add missing roads by drawing lines, quickly rename roads, change road directionality, and realign or delete incorrect roads," explained Google Maps' Director of Product Kevin Reece in a press release. "You can even let us know if a road is closed with details like dates, reasons and directions."

Navigating to this new feature is exactly the same as submitting a road correction prior to the update. Simply open Google Maps on your computer, click on the hamburger menu next to the search bar, select "Edit the map," then choose "Missing road."

Google will vet user submissions before they are published to weed out any rogue dong graffiti, and the update will roll out in over 80 countries over the coming months.

Google Maps also announced another boon for people who say it best when they say nothing at all: photo updates. Rather than having to write down your recent experience of a place or give your local bar a star rating, you can simply upload a photo of yourself getting absolutely smashed on Friday night (once you can, you know, safely do that) and let people draw their own conclusions.

To be clear, you can already upload photos to Google Maps. However, these new photo updates appear to focus on recent images, meaning there'll be a fairly good chance the quiet-looking little cafe you're eyeing is still quiet when you visit.

Photo updates do let you leave a short text description beneath the images you upload, but there's also no obligation to make any sort of quality judgement on the location — or for you to write anything useful. It's more about letting people see for themselves what the location is like at that point in time.

"[S]ometimes you need a little more information, like if a restaurant’s outdoor dining area is shaded on hot days or how crowded a parking lot for a popular hiking trail can get on the weekends," said Reece.

To see photos other people have uploaded for a location, look at the place in Google Maps and click the "Updates" tab. To upload your own, hit the "Upload a photo update" button.

Now all of the internet knows you had a nice brunch. Credit: google

Google Maps' photo updates will roll out in the coming weeks, and there is currently no limit to the number of photos you can choose to upload. But I'm sure you'll all be perfectly sensible with this responsibility.