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The application, dubbed Google Map Maker, allows maps of various countries which have limited data to be edited, including the Bahamas, Cyprus, Iceland, Pakistan and Vietnam.

"The existing mapping data for these countries could benefit tremendously from local knowledge and expertise that you and other map makers possess, and we're excited to see how you put that to use," says a post on the Google LatLong blog, written by the Google Earth and Maps teams.

The new tool can be accessed here, although it seems that Google still has some work to do on usability - we had to concede defeat after a frustrating ten minute attempt to add an unmarked road in Southern Cyprus.

Despite this, the application has already been used internally by Google for some time. Recent maps of the Ayeyarwaddy delta in Myanmar, released after Cyclone Nargis hit the area, were created internally using the software.