So as many of you know Google dumped TeleAtlas last October in favour of home-grown data. Personally I found this choice over leveraging OpenStreetMap a poor one, but that's another topic.
Point is that since October, Google Maps' data quality has been very spotty. >From acceptable results to the truly mythic; there's just no way to know anymore what to expect. This isn't just some academic exercise anymore as Android hits more mobile phones and more "ordinary" people take for granted routing & geocoding. Personally I've witnessed this firsthand on numerous occasions. Friends that nearly missed flights due to bad directions. Wasting half an hour lost because Google Maps (and Bing and OSM and Yahoo) had no knowledge of an entire subdivision that's several years old [1]. I'm sure everyone has anecdotes. Really I'm not trying to focus on Google Maps - other providers have this issue, and the problem exists elsewhere (and certainly is nothing new to geo data). However the widespread commoditization/adoption of GIS technology and map data is a done deal and is amplifying this more than ever before with no "man in the loop" to QC. I think unless consumers start paying attention then this will develop into a real mess. What do you think? Lost cause? Will be overcome by events? - bri 1. http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Honolulu,+Hawaii+96822&ll=21.486995,-158.061655&spn=0.007358,0.016512&t=h&z=17
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