What is it with Google Maps?
May. 31st, 2011 06:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dcI remember when Google Maps first appeared I said I would never use it for somewhere I didn't know well myself. That kind of still applies, although Street View makes up for a lot of its deficiencies, since whatever the map shows, the pictures record pretty much what's there. (Though an unfortunately parked van did foil my use of it to identify a particular restaurant's location once.) Still, though, if I really want a good idea about street layout in an area I don't know, I would rather use Streetmap, which is much more accurate.
What baffles me is when Google Maps decides to rename a road. Not talking about small streets or lanes here, either. The first time I came across this was in 2005 when I discovered Google Maps was under the impression that Great Western Road (one of the main arterial routes into Glasgow) was called “Inverquhomery Road” — a street name you won't find anywhere in the city.
They're at it again. Checking up on the location of a place in Bloomsbury, I discovered that Google Maps thinks that the road running south from Russell Square to the junction with High Holborn and Kingsway is called Northampton Row.
Seriously, WTF?
What baffles me is when Google Maps decides to rename a road. Not talking about small streets or lanes here, either. The first time I came across this was in 2005 when I discovered Google Maps was under the impression that Great Western Road (one of the main arterial routes into Glasgow) was called “Inverquhomery Road” — a street name you won't find anywhere in the city.
They're at it again. Checking up on the location of a place in Bloomsbury, I discovered that Google Maps thinks that the road running south from Russell Square to the junction with High Holborn and Kingsway is called Northampton Row.
Seriously, WTF?
