Google Maps - End of the World as we Know It

What is going on with G maps?!?

[Brett_Tabke]

So, we are on vacation on the big island of Hawaii.

We put in to go to a resturant, and google maps sends us to a residential neighborhood.
We want to see a botanical garden - it sends us down a road that does not exist.
We put in to see Volcanoes national park - it sent us to Rawanda and then to Kenya.
We went to see a local zoo - it sent us to downtown hilo to City hall.

Whats up with that Google?

This on top of numerous screw ups back in Austin....

Me thinks their switch of data sets didn't work out so well... [readwriteweb.com...]

[Brett_Tabke]

as if I am being stalked by the man, I see my first Google picture taking car today as we are pulling into a beach. whoa.

[akmac]

Hey, welcome to Hawaii! (I got here 4 weeks ago)

Yes, I think the google cam cars frequent the beaches. For some reason...

[grandpa]

as if I am being stalked by the man

They knew where you were before you did...

[mack]

>> They knew where you were before you did...

Thats what you get for booking online :)

If you think thats bad try Google maps walking directions. I was in the city a few days ago and didn't realy know my way about. I set my destination, and it gave me directions. Next junction turn left [press next] turn 2nd right and so on. The walk took me 20 mins. For my return I decided to go for a bit of a walk and just headed in a random direction. 5 mins later I arrived at my starting point :) great directions huh!

Mack.

[Brett_Tabke]

Normally, it wouldn't be an issue when a website lets me down. However, I think Maps is Google's best product to date. I have always felt it is better than the search engine itself. So for them to be 0 for 5 on this trip is pretty rude awakening.

In other news, Bing maps worked out 4 of 5 for us.

[jecasc]

I just read that a Tsunami warning has been issued for Hawaii. ETA 11:19 AM, SAT 27 FEB 2010. Hope you're all safe.

[prh.noaa.gov...]

[blend27]

Mack, did you have your "Google COOKIE" jar with you :)?

According to maps.gorg.tld One should be looking at an abandoned oil refinery when outside of my friends house`s window. We picked grapes and made wine from it last year. 16 galons of it.

[Visit Thailand]

Funny that G Maps can get Thailand right but you seem to have problems with Hawaii.

As for Bing, never tried, most likely never will.

[bill]

Google Maps is outstanding in Japan. I have yet to catch a major error.

Bing Maps are catching up in Japan. The downside for some is that they have no English maps available. G Maps are bilingual.

[ergophobe]

Ah yes... the pleasures of Google Maps.

Our house has been off by over a mile ever since Google Maps came out. You put in our address in Street View and it shows you a retaining wall. Yes, Harry Potter fans, our house is unplottable, just like #12 Grimold place.

Over the years, I've sent in corrections numerous times.

Now our house is only a quarter mile a away.

And then there are the landmarks - I mean the ones embedded in the maps, not the pinpoint things. Every single one of them is off substantially.

The four most important ones
- one of the most famous restaurants in California
- a major non-profit
- the major government agency in the area
- a ski area - yes, they put a ski area in the middle of our residential neighborhood

Are all misplaced by between 7 and 25 miles from their actual locations. Furthermore, they are placed in the middle of nowhere - there's no building of any sort there, so there's nobody to ask.

Finally, and perhaps worst of all, they actually have a private residence labelled with the name of the resident. Fortunately, since their inaccuracy knows no bounds, they have placed this home on the wrong street, about a half mile away from where she actually lives.

Wouldn't it be better to provide no data at all rather than incorrect data?

Is this evidence of the hubris of Google - they started out wanting to organize the world's information, and now they've moved on to re-dis-organizing the world's geography.

Don't get me wrong, all of these mapping services online are an amazing free resource, but they really need to be more judicious about adding information.

Some system like RECAPTCHA would be sensible - in order to add a correction to a map, you have to correctly identify a known landmark. Once you do that, you add info for the new landmark. That landmark then gets served to the next corrector. When you have a certain consensus, you plot it on the map.

[ergophobe]

>>Bing Maps are catching up in Japan

Oh, the irony. Bing maps are using Navteq data. For the entire time that Google maps were using Navteq, they had all the numbers in our neighborhood messed up.

Navteq finally gets it right just in time to get dropped by Google.

Bing maps put our house within about 100 feet of it's correct location - within the resolution error of the map I would say.