Betrayal By Google

[marcusmarcusrc]

So, I'm in DC for AAAS placement interviews. I'm looking forward to a long, intense week of talking to EPA, NSF, and DOE officials. But, to get to my subject heading: after a 2.5 hour flight delay due to lacking a stewardess (that's longer than the flight itself) I take the Metro into DC and head to my hotel.

Only to end up in a somewhat sketchy neighborhood. Eventually I figure out that I'm about 9 blocks away from where I want to be, and correct myself. Then I went back to Google Maps to see why I went wrong. And, lo and behold, when I typed in "1015 L St NW, Washington, DC" I didn't get my real hotel location, but rather the sketchy neighborhood. And then, I notice that Google has this handy "Edit: NEW!" button, and below that, in small, greyed out type "last edited by eh... on Dec 27". I go and look at the edit, and basically Mr. Eh moved the Google Maps arrow from the correct location to this new incorrect location 0.7 miles away. Worse than that, if I look for nearby hotels, it claims that my hotel is indeed right there (which I had done to double check the location the first time). (If I just look for my hotel in the DC area, I get both the correct and incorrect location).

So, while I wasn't paying attention, it seems like "Google Maps" has become "Google Wiki-Maps". Have a grudge against someone's company? Change its google maps location!

While I appreciate that wikis can be useful, I think it is rather important to note clearly any information that is user-generated so that one cannot move an address willy-nilly across town to see which clueless tourist follows it there.

Comments

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

You can't move it more than a certain distance without it taking manual approval on their end.
That said, I don't know what they do to vet the edit.
And yeah, some evidence of the change would be nice.

The edits I've made have all be for the light side of the force.

[arcanology.livejournal.com]

You probably said something bad about google somewhere where the searchbots heard you.* You are lucky your punishment was so mild... maybe you merely said something insufficiently positive?

*you know, planet earth. Though I am confident our Glorious Google Overlords will meet their three year plan to blanket the whole solar system.

[medyani.livejournal.com]

er, lacking a "flight attendant." said someone can be female or male ...

Sorry to hear about the woe -- I look forward, however, to hearing about the meetings, etc!

[marcusmarcusrc.livejournal.com]

The announcement was "lacking a stewardess" so I faithfully copied that down. They may have had someone specific in mind who was sick/missing a connecting flight.

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

If it's any consolation, when I read the post I thought "hmm, stewardess is an odd choice of word for marcusmarcusrc. I bet he's repeating the announcement the airline made."

[marcusmarcusrc.livejournal.com]

Oddly, the same person who was reporting our missing stewardess was very careful when referring to a missing pilot for another flight to say "we are waiting for his or her flight to arrive". I noted that as being a curious contrast.

Now for the important question...

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

Did you like the hotel?

Re: Now for the important question...

[marcusmarcusrc.livejournal.com]

Yes, it is quite nice, and very well located for my purposes.