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I'm not a protectionist, but Google Maps has been damaging high quality local mapping services because of its zero price-point. It is technically the best mappi

by buyx 11y ago

I'm not a protectionist, but Google Maps has been damaging high quality local mapping services because of its zero price-point. It is technically the best mapping service, but when the data is wrong, it is very wrong, and, the bigger the problems, the tougher it is to get them fixed, even using Map Maker. After 2000, South African local governments were restructured. New municipalities were created by amalgamating formerly separate towns. The boundaries of those defunct towns are visible on Google Maps (as they should be, as an aid to navigation, since the new municipalities are huge). The problem is that the boundaries of these defunct amalgamated towns are totally wrong on Google Maps, especially in the cases of the City of Johannesburg, and Ekurhuleni Municipality. Suburbs like Emmmarentia and Parkhurst in Johannesburg are supposedly in Randburg according to Google Maps, and this leads to enormous confusion when looking up addresses. Similarly, the boundaries of Bedfordview in Ekurhuleni are wrong. Trying to fix these boundary issues is futile, because one has no idea what criteria are used in moderation, and it takes a very long time to do these fixes, only to risk having them rejected. Google needs to invest more in Maps, rather than trying to get away on the cheap with half-baked crowdsourcing, and it needs to make sure that it responds to error reports quickly and transparently.

paganel 11y ago
Three of four years ago GMaps used to display as open and operating a highway linking my city (Bucharest) to another city 40 miles away. The problem was that that highway was in no way open nor operating, as it was still under construction. I completed that "this-place-is-wrong"-form describing the issue and received a message back saying that bla-bla-bla the map is correct and I am wrong. That only increased my reliance on trusted paper maps from that day on.
- SeanDav 11y ago
  This reminds me of a similar problem with wikipedia. A well known celebrity (Author I think) noticed that his birth date was incorrect. He tried to get it changed, even stating that he was the actual person and knows his own birthday - only to have it rejected as not from a good enough source!
liotier 11y ago
> After 2000, South African local governments were restructured. New municipalities were created by amalgamating formerly separate towns. [..] In France, administrative boundaries are updated in Openstreetmap about as fast as the government publishes them. Don't wait for Google !
rmc 11y ago
OpenStreetMap is a free wiki map (which I'd say in some areas is a the better mapping service technically). You can update the map yourself, and it's shown immediatly. You can meet up and discuss with local mappers on how to map something. You don't need to wait for Google.
jarek 11y ago
It's interesting to see how Google is consistently missing those local things. In Iceland http://en.ja.is/kort http://en.ja.is/kort has way better satellite imagery and OSM has better maps. In Poland most transit data is missing from Google Maps and only available on local apps (e.g. Jakdojade.pl). People catch on sooner or later.

by buyx 11y ago

paganel 11y ago

Three of four years ago GMaps used to display as open and operating a highway linking my city (Bucharest) to another city 40 miles away. The problem was that that highway was in no way open nor operating, as it was still under construction. I completed that "this-place-is-wrong"-form describing the issue and received a message back saying that bla-bla-bla the map is correct and I am wrong. That only increased my reliance on trusted paper maps from that day on.

SeanDav 11y ago
This reminds me of a similar problem with wikipedia. A well known celebrity (Author I think) noticed that his birth date was incorrect. He tried to get it changed, even stating that he was the actual person and knows his own birthday - only to have it rejected as not from a good enough source!

liotier 11y ago

> After 2000, South African local governments were restructured. New municipalities were created by amalgamating formerly separate towns. [..] In France, administrative boundaries are updated in Openstreetmap about as fast as the government publishes them. Don't wait for Google !

rmc 11y ago

OpenStreetMap is a free wiki map (which I'd say in some areas is a the better mapping service technically). You can update the map yourself, and it's shown immediatly. You can meet up and discuss with local mappers on how to map something. You don't need to wait for Google.

jarek 11y ago

It's interesting to see how Google is consistently missing those local things. In Iceland http://en.ja.is/kort http://en.ja.is/kort has way better satellite imagery and OSM has better maps. In Poland most transit data is missing from Google Maps and only available on local apps (e.g. Jakdojade.pl). People catch on sooner or later.