The interface isn't exactly new; it is part of the new Maps and thus has been out for months. Classic Maps sent you to Community Edits (the interface you are used to seeing) and so did the edit options on G+ pages. On the new Maps there are three different ways to submit edits and all lead you to this new interface, but G+ pages still used Community Edits up until a few days ago.
I've talked to Google a few time about this new interface, and then a formal escalation/complaint was made a week and a half ago. I then made the same discovery as you a few days ago that now the G+ pages are also directing you to this interface and forwarded that on as a follow-up.
Gotcha, thanks. So essentially anyone can now add a Google+ Local page for any business they want?
They always could. This is just yet another interface in which it can be done; but you people have been adding them via Community Edits and Map Maker for years. More G+ pages get added by users than owners.
Is this essentially the same as adding a business through MapMaker but with freeform addresses?
It's equal to Community Edits from 3-4 years ago, before they put a lot of work into a new interface that enforced using the available choices, as sort of Map Maker Lite. This new interface basically undone a bunch of work that some team did towards creating better data. But yes, all forms of entry available to the public (old Community Edits, new Community Edits, Maps interface) all create edits that we then review in Map Maker. We've been seeing edits in Map Maker from this new interface for months now, and they are just as horrible as the ones that come over from GMB.
And since GMB has taken over the majority of business reviewing fro the GRs with their Listing Editors that get it wrong over 50% of the time, expect many bad edits from this new interface to get approved without correction.
