In May, Google had to close Map Maker because of all the abuse. Well, now Google is planning on reopening it next month.

A post by Google’s Pavithra Kanakarajan in the Google Map Maker Forums said the new Google Map Maker is opening in August. She said, “Map Maker will be reopened for editing in early August.” But with that comes changes.

Google will be relying more on the community to manage the edits, not Googlers. Why? Because Googlers were too slow to fix errors and vandalism in the maps.

Pavithra Kanakarajan said:

Google, at first, will reach out to select Map Maker users and ask them if they want to be “Regional Leads” in their region. That Regional Lead team will grow and grow as time goes on, so that they can expand the trusted team of users.

For more details, see the Google Map Maker Forums.

Forum discussion at Google Map Maker Forums and Local Search Forums.