3 ms·

Google shows parts of Arunachal Pradesh (India) in Chinese Language

20 points by aj 17y ago

dirtyaura 17y ago
Google Maps' name data is a strange beast. A while ago Google Maps showed Spanish names for many Finnish cities for several months. If I've understood correctly, names do not actually come from Google, but from map data providers, so the culprit in this is case is a map data provider.
est 17y ago
Arunachal Pradesh? I thought it's called 藏南 (CHINA)
sketerpot 17y ago
In related news, YouTube thinks that I speak Mandarin. With the traditional character set. I've tried to get this changed, but to no avail. I uploaded a video today, and I got an automatic email with this subject: 恭喜您上傳了第一部 YouTube 影片！ Babelfish tells me that it means "Congratulated you to upload the first YouTube movie!" which I suppose is straightforward enough, but I would have preferred to hear it in a language that doesn't baffle me quite as much.
davidw 17y ago
Maps are tricky. Currently, Google Maps seems to be showing town names in Sudtirol (the German-speaking bit of Italy that was part of Austria until after the 1st world war) exclusively in Italian, and the street names in both languages. Everything there is officially bilingual, and pretty much everything has to be in both languages. Wait... even weirder, I switched to the terrain view, and it added the German town names (map view doesn't have them). Beautiful area, in any case: http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=46.919552,11.492043&spn=0.146561,0.445976&t=p&z=12 http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=46.919552,11.492043&#...
nasrkhan 17y ago
It is an interesting development in the Web 2.0 era. Now the tech companies are the source for brewing up social and political debates and controversies: (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/india/Google-shows-parts-of-Arunachal-in-Chinese/articleshow/4869777.cms http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/india/Google-shows-p...) Recently Google Earth stepped up the coverage of darfur genocide. http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/08/06/google-steps-up-its-darfur-genocide-coverage-in-google-earth/ http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/08/06/google-steps-up-its-dar... Now with these two diagonally opposite cases, it is to be seen how an increasingly popular and influential tech giant treads the fine line between fact and diplomacy, setting examples for others in the process.
three14 17y ago
It appears from Wikipedia that the border is disputed. If so, it looks like the Indian position is that Google is taking sides, but Google might just have been attempting to stay neutral.
- plinkplonk 17y ago
  "It appears from Wikipedia that the border is disputed." It is. Map makers are in a hard place. There are parts of Kashmir that are in Pakistan but Indian maps show them as part of India. Which never made sense to me. The indian government goes after anyone whose maps show it differently. (fwiw I am Indian)
bmunro 17y ago
One of the comments in the article notes that: The global version of Google Maps shows the border as a dashed line, according to actual territorial possession. The Chinese version, Google Ditu, shows the border as an unbroken line according to the Chinese claim. Taiwan is also shown as part of mainland China.

20 points by aj 17y ago

Google Maps' name data is a strange beast. A while ago Google Maps showed Spanish names for many Finnish cities for several months. If I've understood correctly, names do not actually come from Google, but from map data providers, so the culprit in this is case is a map data provider.

est 17y ago

Arunachal Pradesh? I thought it's called 藏南 (CHINA)

sketerpot 17y ago

In related news, YouTube thinks that I speak Mandarin. With the traditional character set. I've tried to get this changed, but to no avail. I uploaded a video today, and I got an automatic email with this subject: 恭喜您上傳了第一部 YouTube 影片！ Babelfish tells me that it means "Congratulated you to upload the first YouTube movie!" which I suppose is straightforward enough, but I would have preferred to hear it in a language that doesn't baffle me quite as much.

davidw 17y ago

Maps are tricky. Currently, Google Maps seems to be showing town names in Sudtirol (the German-speaking bit of Italy that was part of Austria until after the 1st world war) exclusively in Italian, and the street names in both languages. Everything there is officially bilingual, and pretty much everything has to be in both languages. Wait... even weirder, I switched to the terrain view, and it added the German town names (map view doesn't have them). Beautiful area, in any case: http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=46.919552,11.492043&spn=0.146561,0.445976&t=p&z=12 http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=46.919552,11.492043&#...

nasrkhan 17y ago

It is an interesting development in the Web 2.0 era. Now the tech companies are the source for brewing up social and political debates and controversies: (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/india/Google-shows-parts-of-Arunachal-in-Chinese/articleshow/4869777.cms http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/india/Google-shows-p...) Recently Google Earth stepped up the coverage of darfur genocide. http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/08/06/google-steps-up-its-darfur-genocide-coverage-in-google-earth/ http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/08/06/google-steps-up-its-dar... Now with these two diagonally opposite cases, it is to be seen how an increasingly popular and influential tech giant treads the fine line between fact and diplomacy, setting examples for others in the process.

three14 17y ago

It appears from Wikipedia that the border is disputed. If so, it looks like the Indian position is that Google is taking sides, but Google might just have been attempting to stay neutral.

plinkplonk 17y ago
"It appears from Wikipedia that the border is disputed." It is. Map makers are in a hard place. There are parts of Kashmir that are in Pakistan but Indian maps show them as part of India. Which never made sense to me. The indian government goes after anyone whose maps show it differently. (fwiw I am Indian)

bmunro 17y ago

One of the comments in the article notes that: The global version of Google Maps shows the border as a dashed line, according to actual territorial possession. The Chinese version, Google Ditu, shows the border as an unbroken line according to the Chinese claim. Taiwan is also shown as part of mainland China.