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Why is Google Maps back to showing old satellite images of Altadena?

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Re: Why is Google Maps back to showing old satellite images of Altadena?

#31

Post by palmotea »

866-RON-0-FEZ wrote: post #27

Well there is a very contentious mayoral election going on in LA right now, and the fires are a central topic. Concealing the fire damage could be used to influence or thwart campaign messaging. Not that Google has been caught doing anything political before...

> Well there is a very contentious mayoral election going on in LA right now, and the fires are a central topic.

> Concealing the fire damage could be used to influence or thwart campaign messaging.

I know nothing about that election, but what would be Google's angle in wanting to influence it?

Re: Why is Google Maps back to showing old satellite images of Altadena?

#32

Post by bastawhiz »

trashb wrote: post #22

Google is not flying over the area itself right? perhaps they where using source maps with some sort of license agreement and the license expired, or there was a dispute. It seems to me that it is in the favor of Google to gather the most up-to date maps, even if they can offer them in a limited window. I wonder if the same is true for Google Earth, since I believe that uses higher quality / different maps in a lot o…

This was my first thought. The simplest explanation is that they lost access to the recent imagery. If you were going to build a system like this, you'd show the most recent imagery for an area that you have access to. If one of your license agreements ends, it might mean you end up showing less desirable data, but at least you're showing data.

Re: Why is Google Maps back to showing old satellite images of Altadena?

#33

Post by redsocksfan45 »

866-RON-0-FEZ wrote: post #27

Well there is a very contentious mayoral election going on in LA right now, and the fires are a central topic. Concealing the fire damage could be used to influence or thwart campaign messaging. Not that Google has been caught doing anything political before...

[dead]

Re: Why is Google Maps back to showing old satellite images of Altadena?

#34

Post by trunkiedozer »

brookst wrote: post #29
866-RON-0-FEZ wrote: post #27

Well there is a very contentious mayoral election going on in LA right now, and the fires are a central topic. Concealing the fire damage could be used to influence or thwart campaign messaging. Not that Google has been caught doing anything political before...

Is there any evidence of such an elaborate scheme? Are voters looking on Google Maps to validate claims about the fires, in some kind of mass trend that produces evidence? Because it really sounds like a conspiracy theory draped over a pretty tangential fact. But I’d love to be wrong if there is evidence (“Google did something totally different but also bad” is not evidence).

[flagged]

Re: Why is Google Maps back to showing old satellite images of Altadena?

#35

Post by paganel »

bastawhiz wrote: post #32
trashb wrote: post #22

Google is not flying over the area itself right? perhaps they where using source maps with some sort of license agreement and the license expired, or there was a dispute. It seems to me that it is in the favor of Google to gather the most up-to date maps, even if they can offer them in a limited window. I wonder if the same is true for Google Earth, since I believe that uses higher quality / different maps in a lot o…

This was my first thought. The simplest explanation is that they lost access to the recent imagery. If you were going to build a system like this, you'd show the most recent imagery for an area that you have access to. If one of your license agreements ends, it might mean you end up showing less desirable data, but at least you're showing data.

> The simplest explanation is that they lost access to the recent imagery. I

Reasonable explanation, but they didn't, for example this is the Google Earth link [1] with satellite imagery of the area from back in September 2025, the most recent satellite imagery they seem to have from there. The fire damage can clearly be seen. So there must be some other reason behind it.

[1] https://earth.google.com/web/search/Altadena,+CA,+USA/@34.19...

Re: Why is Google Maps back to showing old satellite images of Altadena?

#36

Post by zoltanbalazs »

I found that Google Maps also shows ~5 year old satellite images in Budapest, even though the copyright in the bottom right would tell otherwise. BUT if you toggle globe view, you get a more recent satellite image that seems to actually match the copyright date. (It can be toggled in Layers -> More, at the bottom, when on a desktop, not sure about the app)

Re: Why is Google Maps back to showing old satellite images of Altadena?

#37

Post by buckle8017 »

palmotea wrote: post #31
866-RON-0-FEZ wrote: post #27

Well there is a very contentious mayoral election going on in LA right now, and the fires are a central topic. Concealing the fire damage could be used to influence or thwart campaign messaging. Not that Google has been caught doing anything political before...

> Well there is a very contentious mayoral election going on in LA right now, and the fires are a central topic. > Concealing the fire damage could be used to influence or thwart campaign messaging. I know nothing about that election, but what would be Google's angle in wanting to influence it?

Google likely doesn't have an angle, but the person who decided to make this change maybe does.

Re: Why is Google Maps back to showing old satellite images of Altadena?

#38

Post by RankingMember »

bflesch wrote: post #5

Maps are extremely political. For Epstein island the US government has scrubbed/redated large periods of historic satellite imagery in order to hide construction of underground structures on each corner of the island. Chinese equivalents of Google earth offer clear images of different construction stages that the "US Coast Guard" prefers to hide. If you check different satellite imagery providers it's always interest…

How deep could an underground structure even be on the corner of an island?

Re: Why is Google Maps back to showing old satellite images of Altadena?

#39

Post by trashb »

paganel wrote: post #35
bastawhiz wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was my first thought. The simplest explanation is that they lost access to the recent imagery. If you were going to build a system like this, you'd show the most recent imagery for an area that you have access to. If one of your license agreements ends, it might mean you end up showing less desirable data, but at least you're showing data.

> The simplest explanation is that they lost access to the recent imagery. I Reasonable explanation, but they didn't, for example this is the Google Earth link [1] with satellite imagery of the area from back in September 2025, the most recent satellite imagery they seem to have from there. The fire damage can clearly be seen. So there must be some other reason behind it. [1] https://earth.google.com/web/search/Altad…

As I understand it Google earth and Google maps are two separate products. And Google earth is the more premium product (more data and features accessable), therefore perhaps the licenses are separately negotiated?
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