Local Costco Google Maps goof

As I'm a big fan of using Google Maps (double true!) I use it often and even find myself virtually strolling around town with it -- you never know what you may find! Yesterday when looking for a decent local part near work for an afternoon game of whiffle ball I was reminded of a little part over off S. 38th that I was sure sat behind the Costco there. The map, however, seemed to show a much bigger park than I could place and, only until I switched over to a satellite view, was I made acutely aware of how a piece of technology is only as good as the humans putting data into it.

The not-so-recently built Costco occupied nearly half the former park bounds. The maps idea of the parks size is completely false and simply needs updating. The thing that strikes me is that these inconsistencies exist plainly visible from within their own system. Now, I'm sure cartography isn't an easy business no matter working in the paper or digital realms but you think there'd be an advantage to having smart people at Google around. I could easily invision algorithms being written comparing old and new satellite imagry or maps that could differentiate a patch of grass or trees and a gray, square building or new straight line road.

Maybe I'm just dreaming a bit here but waiting for a human in their midst to find and point out this kind of problem when you've got a whole world full of detailed maps seems like a bad idea. But, in case anyone's wondering, Lincoln Heights Park isn't as big as the map says so you may think twice before heading there to fly a model plane or throw around an Aerobee.

P.S. - The exact same thing is true in this particular spot on both Yahoo and MSN local's maps. Congratulations to them all!

Comments (6) | To Top

7/15/2006 @ 10:35pm

The Satellite view is wrong as well. Steele Street now runs through to South 35th Street making the park even smaller.

by Jake

7/16/2006 @ 12:43am

That's right -- guess I can't blame Google though since they probably get their data from companies like navquest or whatever. Still...

by KevinFreitas

7/16/2006 @ 1:45pm

The city's Govme.com website just updated there satellite maps with 2005 maps. On that site you can click from 2002 to 2005 satellite views with one click. It is cool to see all of the changes in some areas.

7/16/2006 @ 1:50pm

Too bad their site's maps don't work in Firefox and barely seem to work in IE. In which section did you find the satellite views?

7/16/2006 @ 2:25pm

I haven't had any problems with them using IE.

From the homepage go to Mapping Information. Download the Mapguide Viewer if you haven't already. Click Find Map With All Features ( The map window now comes up as a new window, so you might need to make sure a pop-up blocker isn't blocking it.)
Then to the left is GIS/Mapping. That has all of the different map years.

Also a new feature they added is Code Complaints. You can see if any of your neighbors have ever been tagged for a code violation.
They also now link to the crime data for the surrounding area when you click on a parcel.

7/16/2006 @ 3:58pm

Very cool -- thanks Jake. I'll give it a closer look. Fun stuff!

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