SFist: Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz Prefers Google Maps

mushmouth

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 10:35:31 -0800

There is actually more to this with Google sending people down less than the safest route, I don't know if you all remember the sad story of James Kim and family, but it was a Google map route that helped contribute to their troubles (BTW I didn't say "Caused", but it seems it was a contributing factor). When using the Yahoo Maps, MapQuest and Google Maps online services to plot directions from Grants Pass to Gold Beach, Yahoo and MapQuest both recommend taking the same, safer highway route, while Google suggests a shortcut through roads that become dangerous in winter. If it were Microsoft, this would have become common knowledge, but due to the fact that it is Google, and they are thought of as almost always right, this part of this sad story is forgotten.

billywags

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 09:46:00 -0800

What, manually manipulate a writing implement with your hand to scratch markings on a piece of paper like a caveman? Hardly.

travin

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 01:19:57 -0800

HAHA. I did that too, to Tokyo. I discovered something new. When you have the directions map, clicking and dragging on the path changes the route and directions. Neat!

travin

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 01:02:49 -0800

Might the misplacement be one of those deliberate homeland security dealios? I mean come on. If it is, it's not exactly the blurring of Cheney's house but somewhere close.

IZ1

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 22:33:14 -0800

Damn I'm horny for some hot bitch. Need to google map Hustler Club!

Olsonist

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 18:46:52 -0800

I can see saying something like this in a meeting for effect but saying it publicly for attribution translates to something like "I don't fuck my wife and the mother of my children. Nah, there's this hot bitch down the street who gets all of my attentions." Now the press my like something like this but the wife might not.

Generic

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 18:43:00 -0800

I was the 1st bartender to ever work at Teatro Zinzanni. The made us wear full length Jean-Paul Gaultier coats. Which isn't as fun as it sounds.

sfnrh

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 17:16:23 -0800

Try calling ahead to your destination and writing the directions down yourself. The margin of error is lower.

HHumbert

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 17:12:26 -0800

LMAO on the kayaking thing. It worked. Funny.

EllyMental

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 16:47:17 -0800

Sorry, bad link.

EllyMental

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 16:42:17 -0800

I know for a fact the noids at Google have a sense of humor with their apps. Try Googling the directions from SF to Sydney. You'l be directed up to Seattle then told to kayak across the Pacific Ocean. http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tab=wl

megang

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 15:58:37 -0800

Damn Google maps has gotten me lost more than once. I love when it tells me to do impossible moves, like make a left turn down an invisible street!

baldguy

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 15:25:39 -0800

Are you actually commenting on the posted content? Huh.

mushmouth

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 15:13:44 -0800

Google puts their name and logos on the maps, they make tons of money, they really should be taking care of these issues. After sending me on a dangerous route to Big Basin, I now only use google maps when I use my iPhone. (Which I know is completely opposite of what this story is about)

oskarv

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 15:04:07 -0800

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/30/AR2008063000799.html this article says they get data from both tele atlas and navteq. the other sites that use navteq get it right. obviously the people creating the application have the system to override data from either of the map vendors - erroneously or otherwise.

pantsgolem

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 15:03:25 -0800

Yahoo has maps?

withak

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 14:55:41 -0800

The only thing google actually has control over in their maps is the placemarks that show up when you search and the street view pictures. Everything else (roads, neighborhoods, overhead images, terrain) they buy/rent from other companies.

oskarv

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 14:51:34 -0800

Another thing I just noticed about Google Maps: it's naming a new neighborhood lately that isn't a neighborhood at all......At the 2000ft zoom levels until the 2mi zoom level it names a neighborhood "Buena Vista Park and Dolores Park," which it puts right at the site of Corona Heights Park....?? hahahah. it's almost like there's some trickster playing games and messing stuff up. I do love google though. For the most part they're 10x better than Yahoo.

hillarys_quivering_lip

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 14:41:44 -0800

Soon, we will have Teatro Zinzanni *IN* Hunters Point. ah - the smell of gentrification!

mushmouth

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 14:41:13 -0800

You're probably right as Google can't find "Pier St", but it finds "Pier", which it claims is a little spur off of jennings (my guess is the street view guys were so scared of the area they just got the f out of dodge)

nbsonn

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 14:37:02 -0800

Google actually gets their data from TeleAtlas (www.teleatlas.com). You need to contact them if Google is non-responsive. Side note, I think the fact she is not using Yahoo Maps is too funny. McCain got it right to point her out in that debate. Kind of like loving America but buying everything from WalMart that is made in China.

oskarv

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 14:30:26 -0800

i don't either, but tourists do, and tourists would be the ones relying on google maps to get around SF! i wonder how many hundreds of people have been sent out to the bayview wanting to see Teatro Zinzanni. lol

Brock Keeling

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 14:28:30 -0800

i don't go to the piers. ever.

oskarv

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 14:26:26 -0800

I don't think there is any "pier street." no other maps app has "pier street" listed for San Francisco. i think it's just a big error.

mushmouth

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 14:23:25 -0800

Pier 29 to Google, and I have been sent there, is actually 29 Pier Street. I don't know if they have ever fixed this, but Google's directions to Big Basin used to send you 10 miles up a 1.5 lane extremely winding road (I think it was "Old La Honda"), when there was a full 2 lane relatively straight "La Honda" road that started and ended about a mile away from Old La Honda. To me the worst part about this were, A) quite a few people lived on this road and semi lost out of towners were now taking their road in droves every weekend B) people who worked for Google, if not on Google Maps itself, were very likely being sent down this route themselves, yet the route wasn't corrected for more than a year (and still may not be). MSN, and Yahoo maps both gave the appropriate directions.

oskarv

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 14:06:19 -0800

except for the fact that Google Maps still has the San Francisco piers fucked up, even after i notified them about it like a month ago.... try looking up Pier 29 on Google Maps. takes you to some random-ass spot in the Bayview. in fact MOST of the piers are placed there on Google Maps for some strange reason. this confused me once, because i was trying to give my mom directions to Teatro Zinzanni (pier 29) yahoo maps has it right.