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The Geek Behind Google's Map Quest
- chickenbane 10y agoI did a double-take reading this: Google Maps appears differently depending on the country of your IP address, allowing the company to stay on the right side of the law in the many jurisdictions where it operates. Log in from China, for instance, and Google Maps is strictly controlled by the government, which deliberately inserts errors into GPS systems close to sensitive locations. I already knew Google Maps will be rendered differently based on your location (http://qz.com/224821/see-how-borders-change-on-google-maps-depending-on-where-you-view-them/ http://qz.com/224821/see-how-borders-change-on-google-maps-d...) but this sentence is ambiguous - is Google inserting the errors? How do you insert errors into GPS systems anyway? Guessing this meant that the Chinese government's GPS systems send your device incorrect lat/long coordinates near certain locations, but that seems counter-productive - wouldn't that just tip off people they were near a sensitive location?
- niftich 10y agoGoogle.cn apparently is accurate to the Chinese GCJ-02 datum whereas Google.com, and presumably others, aren't. (Source seems to be the wiki author's observation, but see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restrictions_on_geographic_data_in_China#GCJ-02 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restrictions_on_geographic_dat...)