looks like free OSINT for UA. could also be used for trolling (set markers on russian forces) if true
Ask HN: Can you help me remove the marks for the airstrikes from Google Maps?
131–140 of 160 posts
Re: Ask HN: Can you help me remove the marks for the airstrikes from Google Maps?
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
Makes sense, but source?
You're being downvoted for a fair question. I wouldn't exactly cite this as a source to the GP's claim but it does still answer your question: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packet_switching#History
I guess I may have come across as rude or lazy for not googling it myself :) Thanks!
Re: Ask HN: Can you help me remove the marks for the airstrikes from Google Maps?
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Western media this time is pretty much on point. how do you know this? > so i mostly settled on the Ukrainian TV these the same guys that said the ghost of kiev is a real thing (it’s not)? or that the soldiers of snake island died (they didn’t)?
Ukrainian state media did publish that Snake island defenders may be alive soon after Russian claims. I think it is fair to hold media to high standards, but shouldn't we cut them just a little slack if their country is literally being invaded right now? For the record, I personally know I can trust that last part because I have friends and relatives living in the east of Ukraine (none of whom are particularly politi…
They never said they died. I remember reading something on the line of "we had no communications since and assume they are probably dead".
Re: Ask HN: Can you help me remove the marks for the airstrikes from Google Maps?
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Western media this time is pretty much on point. how do you know this? > so i mostly settled on the Ukrainian TV these the same guys that said the ghost of kiev is a real thing (it’s not)? or that the soldiers of snake island died (they didn’t)?
this is why you do cross-check, and need to understand the limits on the precision of realtime war info. A lot of info has significant fuzziness and consumption of it is an active process. For the snake island there was information that communication got lost at some point during the battle, and they stated that most probably all the guys died. It wasn't intentional disinformation, and that is the key difference from…
> i wouldn't hold it against the TV people who built this legend without waiting for full confirmation or denial - again you need to understand there they can get carried away and why.
I think it’s entirely reasonable to hold journalists to some standards that include “not making shit up and then reporting on it”.
I can be (and am) simultaneously sympathetic to their side but not to their journalistic actions in this case.
Re: Ask HN: Can you help me remove the marks for the airstrikes from Google Maps?
#135Definitely remove this information that may be used by civilians to leave hot zones prior to attack. I cannot believe this level of lack of insight from a group of people who call themselves engineers.
Re: Ask HN: Can you help me remove the marks for the airstrikes from Google Maps?
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ukrainian state media did publish that Snake island defenders may be alive soon after Russian claims. I think it is fair to hold media to high standards, but shouldn't we cut them just a little slack if their country is literally being invaded right now? For the record, I personally know I can trust that last part because I have friends and relatives living in the east of Ukraine (none of whom are particularly politi…
They never said they died. I remember reading something on the line of "we had no communications since and assume they are probably dead".
I never claimed Ukrainian media said they died.
After your comment I checked Wikipedia sources and it turns out they did report something along those lines[0]. But again, cut them some slack.
[0] https://web.archive.org/web/20220225021042/https://www.pravd...
Re: Ask HN: Can you help me remove the marks for the airstrikes from Google Maps?
#137I don’t know if this is true. But to everyone dismissing the idea that a military would ever use Google Maps to co-ordinate, you may have missed some news stories about what a shitshow the first few days of the Russian invasion has been. Major breakdown of their digital systems and lots of improvisation.
The BBC got access to a lost tablet used by some Wagner group mercenaries in Libya and the map they use doesn't seem to be Google maps :
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/extra/8iaz6xit26/the-lost-tablet-...
Re: Ask HN: Can you help me remove the marks for the airstrikes from Google Maps?
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
this is why you do cross-check, and need to understand the limits on the precision of realtime war info. A lot of info has significant fuzziness and consumption of it is an active process. For the snake island there was information that communication got lost at some point during the battle, and they stated that most probably all the guys died. It wasn't intentional disinformation, and that is the key difference from…
> i wouldn't hold it against the TV people who built this legend without waiting for full confirmation or denial - again you need to understand there they can get carried away and why. I think it’s entirely reasonable to hold journalists to some standards that include “not making shit up and then reporting on it”. I can be (and am) simultaneously sympathetic to their side but not to their journalistic actions in this…
Sorry if this sound sharp, but let's discuss this after you spend some quality time performing journalistic or editorial duties while your country is being invaded in real time.
Re: Ask HN: Can you help me remove the marks for the airstrikes from Google Maps?
#139tldr: false alarm, unclear google
I'm back to process info and make edits.
I couldn't stay online due to injured hands from gadgets overuse.
> OP, why do you think a farm business (which gmaps are showing the location of) should be in the same place where farm land is? These simply seem to be the addresses where a "farm business" is registered, as can be confirmed on a company-info-aggregator site [1]. I assume, in a lot of cases (especially for family owned farms), these are actually homes of the owners, to simplify all the mail and other paperwork. Actual farms can be located anywhere, probably outside of town. It might even be multiple farms (multiple pieces of land). To answer your point about why these seem different (e.g. you cannot report them), I think it's because they are automatically scraped by google from the official company-info sites in each country. Seems to be a similar situation in other countries, as far as I can tell. [1] this is the info of the first item on gmaps I get - address matches the location I'm shown https://youcontrol.com.ua/catalog/company_details/21897611/
curl-up was right - these are all addresses of legally registered farms and they are Googlable.
I did not think about googling the names or how farms are registered or why Google has such weird marks.
I thought they are similar because it's the way to find them and not because they are from one trusted source.
Also, all marks I've seen were close to Russian troops. But the only border of Dnipro that's completely safe is west.
Google parses open data. I was not aware of that.
Thanks for the help and sorry for the wasted resources.
P.S. Those marks still look weird nevertheless. Not reportable or edible. The only article they link to is useless. Maybe it's worth fixing.
I'm out of resources (hands) to continue typing. Thank you all <3
Re: Ask HN: Can you help me remove the marks for the airstrikes from Google Maps?
#140Google employee here, though not on the maps team, I just raised it internally to look into (please continue to try to make edits, I don't know when it will be seen)
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