Mexico '11, part 2 - The Trouble With Google Maps

[jamesq]

The trouble with Google Maps is that for a lot of things, they use postal codes or intersections for determining where something is, which means it can be way off. Othertimes they're just plain wrong, as with confusing the Azul Beach hotel with the Azul Sensatori (they're different resorts, albeit next door to each other and both run by Karisma Resorts).



Special thanks to thebrucie for the idea.

Comments

[thebrucie.livejournal.com]

You kinda didn't mention why this information was important...

[jamesq]

I like to assume that people who read my LJ read all of it. I mentioned our long hike in the previous entry.

Of course, I was told that Puerto Morales was about a 60 minute walk south of the resort, so that's what I was expecting.

[lihan161051.livejournal.com]

Google's geocoding is considerably more accurate for some locations than for others, and in some areas, it's appallingly wrong. The algorithms they use seem to be dependent on the density and accuracy of nearby location data, and in sparsely populated areas that don't have a dense mesh of other points of interest .. yeah, they miss pretty badly. :p

And there have been known to be spurious POI's put in by people who are either messing with the system or stroking their own egos. I wish I had a dime for every "airport" POI in Google's GIS that's actually just somebody's backyard. (This is why Google Earth/Maps is not a good thing to use for flight planning, at least not without aeronautical charts and the A/FD to back it up.)