Google Maps Meets Enemy Of The State
Despite being frustrated with Google on other projects, their Maps project continues to impress me day after day. Whether it’s me using it on my iPhone or even at the computer. No matter where it is used, it never ceases to provide me with the data I am looking for.
Blast forward to a new featured recently added to Google Maps where you can zoom in on practically anything. Seriously, this is really creepy. You can zoom in on some people’s homes with fairly decent accuracy.
Thankfully however, only some places zoom in with total accuracy. Because if every place did this, I can see lawsuits being filed even though they would likely fall over in court in most cases. Still, I can understand the uneasy feeling about it nonetheless.
7 Comments
Summer is Finally Upon Us | Chris Pirillo
June 5th, 2009
at 2:00am
[...] Are you impressed with Google Maps? [...]
llsee
June 5th, 2009
at 10:13am
I want to like Google Maps, I really do. I like the way it works, the smooth scrolling and the satellite/map views is really cool. But… unless you live in a major population center, the maps are sadly out of date. I live in southern New Mexico, near El Paso, TX. Las Cruces is a growing city, but Google Maps is at least 5 years out of date.
In my neighborhood, east of Las Cruces, Google Maps still shows the existence of some old 4 wheel drive roads that have not existed since before I moved here 5 years ago. It also doesn’t show many asphalt roads and developments which have been built in the past 5 years. If you are a mapping enterprise, keeping your maps up to date should be the imperative. In contrast, Mapquest is very up to date for this same area. So, I want to love Google Maps, but I can’t until they make up-to-date maps a priority.
The plus side to this is that we don’t have to worry about Street Views.
D
June 5th, 2009
at 1:03pm
I have to agree with llsee. Went on vacation about a month ago. On the way back to where I live…used Google Maps to map out the route of a rural area in Utah where I used to live about 35-40 years ago. While the information was basically right…it was VERY outdated that several farming structures around the area where I used to live had been torn down years ago and replaced with houses and roads to these houses.
It’s almost like they were using images from when Bush Sr. was president…rather than jr.
Rob
June 5th, 2009
at 10:41pm
the satellite imagery in google maps is almost 5 years old now…
Rob
June 5th, 2009
at 10:45pm
the Street View, on the other hand, is in fact truly impressive.
Solid State Nimmitz ~ Windows Fanatics
June 6th, 2009
at 1:39pm
[...] Are you impressed with Google Maps? [...]
oldm8
June 6th, 2009
at 11:15pm
Although the satelitte imagery maybe “aged” it is more upto date than some of the road maps available.
As for the street view being intrusive, I live in a remote rural community and street view here is not available so I don’t find it intrusive at all, and any personal detail seen in street view is out of focus; vehicle number plates & faces are all blurred.