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Street address errors in Google Maps

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Re: Street address errors in Google Maps

#131

Post by Loughla »

echoangle wrote: post #38
Loughla wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google maps also includes towns in rural areas that don't exist. There are 4 listed within 20 miles of my house that haven't existed for well over 100 years. They're not incorporated anymore, and they don't exist on any other maps, just Google. It's weird.

Could be copyright traps to detect unauthorized copying of the map: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantom_settlement

So the towns that show up did exist at one point in the 1800's and early 1900's for a couple. They were towns in the past, but aren't anymore. So I'm not sure they're paper towns. As I understand it, those never existed at all.

Re: Street address errors in Google Maps

#132

Post by astura »

pianom4n wrote: post #36

"Is the parcel in the geographical bounds of the city name entered?" The "city name" on an address isn't really a "city". SFO's address is "San Francisco, CA", but is not within SF city limits. Queens NY addresses have "cities" that are just neighborhoods. Applying any kind of logic to addresses will just be a minefield.

Yeah, this is bizarre. I don't know how it works in Canada but in the US the city/zip of the mailing address is just the location of the post office that delivers mail. It has nothing to do with the municipal the address is actually in.

Re: Street address errors in Google Maps

#133

Post by astura »

jwr wrote: post #74

The real problem is that Google Maps isn't regulated like a utility. I know, I know, we all hate regulation, we love free markets, and all. But bear with me for a moment. I had a problem where Google Maps showed the wrong location for my address. I reported the issue. I was told the correction was accepted. But it wasn't — Google Maps would still show the wrong location. After doing this dance several times over a co…

>I had a problem where Google Maps showed the wrong location for my address. I reported the issue. I was told the correction was accepted. But it wasn't — Google Maps would still show the wrong location. After doing this dance several times over a course of weeks going into months, it would sometimes show the correct location, and sometimes the wrong one. I once had two people arrive in the same car, and each of their phones showed a different location in Google Maps.

I've had this problem for the 10 years I've lived at my address. Google has even changed where they usually send people, which is just a different kind of wrong. Non-existent locations on the other side of town.

It's very frustrating. I usually give people the address of a nearby business. I dare not order food delivery.

Once I ordered a consumer product "next day delivery" which I had no idea would summon an Uber Eats driver. I texted him the correct location once he showed up to the incorrect one. When he got to my house Uber wouldn't even let him complete the delivery because his GPS was so far from what it thought the delivery location was. He had to call them to resolve it.

I've tried to correct it myself about 10 times. I have had all my friends try to correct it from their accounts.

I still don't think that Google Maps should be regulated though. I think it's a ridiculous thing to suggest. I just don't think regulation is the answer to every inconvenience.

Re: Street address errors in Google Maps

#134

Post by trollbridge »

graywh wrote: post #90
trollbridge wrote: post #59

Google Maps decided my driveway is a road, and also gave it a (non-existent) name. I have attempted to update this information, but Google just rejects my suggestions as "not accepted". So we now regularly get people driving down here or trying to park, when it's actually just a one-lane driveway.

double-check it on openstreetmap.org

It’s correct on there (and if it weren’t, I could fix it).

Re: Street address errors in Google Maps

#136

Post by bfdm »

duped wrote: post #103
stingraycharles wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where I currently live, my street has no name, my house has no number. If a package is delivered by mail, my phone number needs to be put on the package, and the local delivery operator calls me to either pick it up, or I send my location through telegram and they deliver it to my house. It’s almost entirely impossible to order through Amazon et al using this type of system, it’s just not supported at all. The same g…

How do you specify your location? GPS coordinates?

I imagine with something like:

Person name, Local-area name, Region Name, Country name, Phone number

This gets it to the nearest handler to the local area, who then needs to know where the person lives or call them.

Re: Street address errors in Google Maps

#137

Post by Fogest »

jbl0ndie wrote: post #122
Fogest wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to be a EMS call taker/dispatch (911) in Ontario, Canada. Addresses could be such a pain, especially in the the more rural areas. There were multiple townships around some bigger cities. They had different naming schemes and suffered from a similar problem that you mentioned. Many of the addresses also had old addresses. Our system would luckily often have both versions of the address stored, but not always. A…

In the UK, our national mapping service has built a tool for hosting vernacular place names to help first responders. https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/news/new-national-vernacula...

That's neat, thanks for sharing! We had the ability to accept a what3word location however it was a really convoluted process to actually attempt to use it. Unfortunately I never personally had anyone use it to give a location, even though it probably would have helped in many cases.

Had some calls where people would be hurt in a forest on a trail system and it was pretty common for people to not even know the name of the trail they are on nor which street they entered it from. Sometimes the GPS location the phone provided to EMS would help, but it also wasn't always 100% reliable, especially if they were in a forest. So being able to have them look at a map on their phone, pin where they are, and give a what3word location would have been immensely helpful.

The kind of system you linked to would also have been quite helpful for the other problems I mentioned.

Re: Street address errors in Google Maps

#138

Post by brucedawson »

paulmooreparks wrote: post #61
paulmooreparks wrote: post #55

Google does have a nearly impossible task making Maps work around the world, and I think it does an admirable job. One just has to have a bit of local knowledge to work around the quirks. For example, the walking directions Maps gives for Singapore are usually ridiculous. They're almost always twice the distance they need to be, since it's very common to cut through the open lower floor (void deck) of apartment build…

And another one I just thought of: If I ask for driving directions to a mall or office building (here in Singapore, anyway), it nearly always sends me to the taxi drop-off, not the entrance to the carpark. I have to drop a pin on the carpark entrance (which presumes that I know where it is) to get sane directions. Otherwise, I end up on the wrong side of the building in gridlocked traffic trying to find the carpark.

That is a problem they haven't tried to solve. Driving directions could be for tax/ride-share or a person in their own car. If Google Maps doesn't even ask you which it is then it can't possibly reliably give you correct directions. I'd love to see that fixed.

Re: Street address errors in Google Maps

#139

Post by brucedawson »

sublinear wrote: post #98

> that’s 1.5 miles or 123 furlongs Surely that's a typo and supposed to be 12.3 furlongs? Even that might be slightly incorrect.

Whoops! Good catch. That was supposed to be 12 furlongs. Apparently I have no intuitive sense of how long a furlong is so I didn't notice my typo

Re: Street address errors in Google Maps

#140

Post by wheybags »

jbl0ndie wrote: post #121
bobsmooth wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you tried adding delivery instructions? But I guess you couldn't complete an Amazon order without an address.

I remember a time before Ireland set up postcodes (zip codes) for the whole country. If postcode was mandatory field in an e-commerce address form, you couldn't mail stuff from the UK unless it was in Dublin. Dublin had postcodes. I managed to find one site that would accept 'null' so the form would submit.

I used to just do "n/a", "na", "none", or "0000", whatever would make it accept.
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