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As Google Maps Renames Neighborhoods, Residents Fume

nytimes.com

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Re: As Google Maps Renames Neighborhoods, Residents Fume

#171

Post by Bjartr »

hyperberry wrote: post #127

Google puts far too much stock into the "accuracy" of its Maps data. Here's my fun story: in order to verify my dad's website with Google's 'My Business' service (now a defunct product?), they had to mail a physical postcard with PIN code to ensure the address was legitimate. Picking the mailing address was hooked into Maps/ Maps data; a "real" address had to be among their existing database of addresses. Well, my da…

Have you tried using the "Send Feedback" menu option in Google maps? It can take some time (on the order of weeks), but I've found they do seem to be responsive to feedback about incorrect data.

Re: As Google Maps Renames Neighborhoods, Residents Fume

#172

Post by soylentcola »

kevinh wrote: post #149
_jal wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it is named for Rincon Point, which took its name from Rincón, the Spanish word for 'corner'. Bored cynicism kinda requires the underlying reality support one's cynicism.

But that name certainly wasn't the name the natives gave it before the Spanish expedition came around. Names change over time. Sometimes because of rebranding, sometimes because of hostile takeover of foreign land. Call it what you want, but I don't see the point of being concerned over the change.

Why did Constantinople get the works?

Re: As Google Maps Renames Neighborhoods, Residents Fume

#173

Post by samstave »

raldi wrote: post #108
reaperducer wrote: post #73

I deal with this with one of the web sites I maintain. I think, as noted in the article, that it seems Google sometimes uses names from advertisements as if they are canonical. In my case, the city in question puts out a very specific, very legally defined map of each neighborhood, and has for more than a century. But real estate agents make up names for the neighborhoods, or fudge the boundaries to improve selling p…

San Francisco also puts out an official map, but like many other official maps, it lacks many of the neighborhoods people expect to find: Sunnyside, Japantown, the Tenderloin, Dogpatch, Hunters Point, Mission Bay, Hayes Valley, Miraloma, Cow Hollow... and so in order to give users what they want and expect, Google has to gather data from other sources. http://sfplanninggis.org/NeighborhoodOrganizations/

I like this also:

https://i.redd.it/domryaykbdn01.jpg

https://www.reddit.com/r/etymologymaps/comments/86eef7/san_f...

Re: As Google Maps Renames Neighborhoods, Residents Fume

#174

Post by dsnuh »

raldi wrote: post #116
dsnuh wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The guy's apartment building isn't called Silver Lake Heights, what he did was start using the term "Silver Lake Heights" to describe an area previously known as "Silver Lake". Realtors often drive the naming of new "neighborhoods", especially if it is lower class area that they want to gentrify. You know, branding.

How do you think other neighborhoods called [Something] Heights came to be?

I understand what you are saying, places are whatever people agree to call them, but I don't doubt that real estate agents, developers, etc are eager to have places called by new names when they are gentrifying the area.

Re: As Google Maps Renames Neighborhoods, Residents Fume

#175

Post by dom96 »

Bjartr wrote: post #171
hyperberry wrote: post #127

Google puts far too much stock into the "accuracy" of its Maps data. Here's my fun story: in order to verify my dad's website with Google's 'My Business' service (now a defunct product?), they had to mail a physical postcard with PIN code to ensure the address was legitimate. Picking the mailing address was hooked into Maps/ Maps data; a "real" address had to be among their existing database of addresses. Well, my da…

Have you tried using the "Send Feedback" menu option in Google maps? It can take some time (on the order of weeks), but I've found they do seem to be responsive to feedback about incorrect data.

I'm not the OP but I have found this menu option to be incredibly useless. Google Maps has strangely lost the ability to point to my address and has refused to fix it for many years now. What's most frustrating is that the "Send Feedback" option offers no way to specify that an address is in the incorrect place, I can only select roads. I have resorted to trying to explain the problem in text but they never got back to me.

Every time a HN thread like this pops up I write about my annoyance with this and nobody has any solution apart from this suggestion. It shouldn't be this hard. Open Street Map is a breath of fresh air in comparison.

Re: As Google Maps Renames Neighborhoods, Residents Fume

#176

Post by raldi »

dsnuh wrote: post #174
raldi wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you think other neighborhoods called [Something] Heights came to be?

I understand what you are saying, places are whatever people agree to call them, but I don't doubt that real estate agents, developers, etc are eager to have places called by new names when they are gentrifying the area.

Sure, but only insofar as any group of people living in a neighborhood likes to name it. Or do you still call the city by its original name, Yerba Buena? :)

Edit: Oh wait, that was a renaming too; just ask the Ohlone.

Re: As Google Maps Renames Neighborhoods, Residents Fume

#178

Post by [deleted] »

lotyrin wrote: post #163
hyperberry wrote: post #127

Google puts far too much stock into the "accuracy" of its Maps data. Here's my fun story: in order to verify my dad's website with Google's 'My Business' service (now a defunct product?), they had to mail a physical postcard with PIN code to ensure the address was legitimate. Picking the mailing address was hooked into Maps/ Maps data; a "real" address had to be among their existing database of addresses. Well, my da…

And the reverse, near me, there's a "South Extension Road" South and Road might reasonably be abbreviated: "S Extension Rd." but Google maps just displays "S Ext Rd" and businesses have addresses of "123 S Ext Rd".

[deleted]

Re: As Google Maps Renames Neighborhoods, Residents Fume

#179

Post by extralego »

Spivak wrote: post #161
Retric wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who else should make that decision? Agents will arbitrarily change maps basted on what their current listing are and would happily change them daily. Longer term there is little point changing place names as changing demographics will eventually adjust the meaning of these names even if no lines move on a map.

Nobody/Everybody, if people start calling a region by a name it makes sense to record the usage and put it on the map. Sure, it probably makes perfections and planners twitch but it makes maps more useful.

I notice a lot of Americans love referring to Canada as “Canadia”. I can’t make a bit of sense out of it, but by your logic we should update the maps already.

Re: As Google Maps Renames Neighborhoods, Residents Fume

#180

Post by extralego »

ErikAugust wrote: post #100
reaperducer wrote: post #73

I deal with this with one of the web sites I maintain. I think, as noted in the article, that it seems Google sometimes uses names from advertisements as if they are canonical. In my case, the city in question puts out a very specific, very legally defined map of each neighborhood, and has for more than a century. But real estate agents make up names for the neighborhoods, or fudge the boundaries to improve selling p…

"I think, as noted in the article, that it seems Google sometimes uses names from advertisements as if they are canonical." --- "Currently the predominant business model for commercial search engines is advertising... We expect that commercial search engines will be inherently biased towards the advertisers and away from the needs of the consumers..." - Sergey Brin and Larry Page, 1998 http://infolab.stanford.edu/~ba…

Nice link. It is incredibly interesting that the Google founders were so outspoken against advertising.

I’d love a detailed account of the process which derailed these moral ideals. Anyone?

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