As with many Google Maps/Earth changes additions, official announcements are hard to come by, but Mapperz have the news that Google are now releasing some of their vector data from Google Map Maker. Map Maker is a Google project that allows users to add/edit data in areas with limited or non-existent coverage from their commercial sources (TeleAtlas).

Google are now allowing some of this vector data to be downloaded in either KML (Keyhole Markup Language) or ESRI Shapefile format. So far, the data is limited to Kenya.

Data is only available for non-commercial non-profit entities. Special terms and conditions have to be signed. Download (plus terms and conditions) can be found here:

https://services.google.com/fb/forms/mapmakerdatadownload/

Further information and download links are available in the Mapperz blog posting:

http://mapperz.blogspot.com/2009/04/google-maps-map-maker-vector-data.htm