Google Maps Hit Mark

The latest addition to Google's(GOOG) popular Maps service shows the company is still headed in the right direction.

On Thursday, Google unveiled a new set of tools that would let users easily customize its Maps. Users will be able to easily add text, graphics and video to the maps, which they can publish so other Web surfers can see them or keep them private.

While "mashups" that overlay data of interest on Google's mapping platform have long been popular, they typically require a good deal of programming expertise to create. The new tools, though, allow anyone who can point and click to be a mapmaker.

"The average user with no technical skills can simply drag and drop," Google Maps product manger Jessica Lee said in an interview. "It's very simple and makes mapmaking accessible to everyone."

The ability to scribble on digital maps may seem like a lighthearted way to open up mapmaking to the masses. But the move marks a shrewdly calculated play by Google to push into some of the hottest and most profitable areas of the Internet, such as user-generated content and local search, and, ultimately, into a domineering position in the mobile market.

Tying it all together is Google's marquee search algorithm.

Just about every Internet company is trying to get in on the flood of user-generated content making it to the Internet. The term, which refers to the material created by a site's users rather than the company itself, is the key to the success of News Corp.(NWS), for example, with MySpace and Facebook.