Congress Questions Google's Katrina Maps

[Horse Chestnut]

A congressional subcommittee accused Google on Friday of ``airbrushing history'' by replacing post-Hurricane Katrina satellite imagery on its popular map portal with images of the region taken before the storm's devastation.

I can't even imagine why Google would do this. Was old information put up as some kind of "place holder" until they could obtain new images?

[Beachlife!]

Originally Posted by Horse Chestnut

A congressional subcommittee accused Google on Friday of ``airbrushing history'' by replacing post-Hurricane Katrina satellite imagery on its popular map portal with images of the region taken before the storm's devastation.

I can't even imagine why Google would do this. Was old information put up as some kind of "place holder" until they could obtain new images?

I read an article where the guy in charge for mapping for Google said that they are always re-evaluating the source of their images. They apparently found higher quality images and used them. Unfortunately they were a bit out of date. From what I've seen a lot of the data is several years old.

[Nick Theodorakis]

Originally Posted by Beachlife!

... From what I've seen a lot of the data is several years old.

For example, the google map (or google earth) pic of downtown St. Louis, MO still shows the old Bush stadium without even a hint of construction of the new one right next to it.

Nick

[TrekkerScout]

Originally Posted by Beachlife!

I read an article where the guy in charge for mapping for Google said that they are always re-evaluating the source of their images. They apparently found higher quality images and used them. Unfortunately they were a bit out of date. From what I've seen a lot of the data is several years old.

I can attest to the fact that they are NOT using up to date images. The image of my neighborhood (within Tacoma, WA) on Google is at least 3 years old. Yahoo! Maps has an image of my neighborhood that is less than a year old and has the same resolution.

From the article:

Google does provide imagery of New Orleans and the region following Katrina through its more specialized service called Google Earth.

If Google Earth is more up to date than Google Maps, then why does Google Earth also have the same 3 year old image of my house!

[chillas]

Originally Posted by TrekkerScout

From the article:If Google Earth is more up to date than Google Maps, then why does Google Earth also have the same 3 year old image of my house!

Both are updated by region, not as a whole.

[Christie]

But the point is that they did have more up to date images and changed them. I'd be interested to know why they did that as well.

[Delta-V]

I can't even imagine the expense to keep Google Earth up-to-date even on a annual basis.

Congress should really have better things to do, too.