Last night, Google’s Jade Wang announced in the Google Business Help forum that they have made an update to the area businesses can maintain and update their Google Places / Local Listing in Google Maps.

Jade said the changes are around the “verification and editing experience for users managing pages in Google+ (in the Local Business or Place category).”

Specifically what was changed includes:

better status updates that tell business owners if their edits are pending or rejected
progress bar to help business owners fill out the most essential information
can now add categories via Google+
updated look and feel (tell us what you think!)

Mike shared a screen shot of the new editor:

Forum discussion at Google Business Help.