Thanks for swinging back and filling us in.

As you can see in my post today, many business listing errors are in fact caused by geospatial errors. Its hard to tell where one leaves off and another starts.

That being the case, fixing the POI might in fact lead to the more important geo fix.

The other thing I noticed in my example above is that they fixed the geo but not the error in business listing. I would argue that both are in need of repair and that the job isn’t really done until both are done.

Google, in taking over responsibility for the underlying geodata and road geometries, took on a huge responsibility. Their initial go at the set is probably filled with inaccuracies more so in the rural areas than in urban (are yours urban or more rural?).

It could take years to get this data in some sort of shape. One wonders if the rate of change of the data will be low enough that they can actually get it to a more useful and safe point given the way that they are assembling it.

One error was a college with its grounds shown in polygon form that has been closed since the 1970s. They first said I was right, then said they fixed the error. The college is still shown on the map. What is irritating is I gave the name of the business now using the college’s grounds and buildings and there is even a point of interest down the road for this business, yet Google did not make the fix.

The other errors are roads that are actually driveways (one into a gas station, another into a school bus yard).

I reopened these error reports and this morning received another notice from Google that my error report was correct about the bus yard’s driveway not being a street. So their communication is good, it’s just a matter of them actually fixing what they say they fixed.

Correcting points of interest and businesses is fine and dandy, but I think it is more important to be fixing incomplete, incorrect, or extraneous roadway data. Since Google is all about advertising, the POIs are more important to them than the underlying roads and place names.

I looked back at some older submissions regarding incorrect street names and turn restrictions, and they were addressed quickly and correctly the first time. It would be interesting to know how many error reports have been submitted. Reporting the number would be a two-edged sword. If it’s a high number, it will make it look like Google’s data set is junk, but if they say they fixed a lot of errors in a timely manner, it may sound impressive.

The buzz about Google sending out Favorite Places packets with window decals to 100,000 of the “most…

I check this stuff quite rigorously. I don’t know if they deliver or not. I tend to think they don’t. It would be nice if someone from UBL commented here.

You are right that the momentum of large organizations frequently subsumes some of the quality issues. And as you note, they are also masked by growth, as it hides many sins.

My sense is that while Google has some time to fix these issues they will not be able to avail themselves of GM’s 9 lives strategy to a painful death strategy.

A switch to a different Mapping provider does not have a 5-10 year replacement cycle. While there are emotional barriers to switching, they can and do hit the tipping point in technology much sooner than in hard goods. Think Visicalc or even Lotus 123.

Supreme arrogance often accompanies the Greek drama of corporate decline….that, at least to my observation, has not yet occurred in Google’s case.

You know, someone at Cre8asite was talking about a new major bridge in Canada that’s been up for 6 months and is visible on StreetView but still missing from Maps. Would be a good thing to report to Google

I am impressed with Google’s tech crew. The job of creating and maintaining the geodata is a huge one that has been mostly well executed…that being said there are data issues with the change over and they need to be dealt with rapidly for both consumer satisfaction and safety.

While always impressed with Google’s technical prowess, I am much less impressed with their communication prowess. I didn’t set the 30 day to fix deadline, they did. I also didn’t ask to be notified before it was actually working….those are not technical errors they are communication errors.

The issue is not whether I work on Bing or Yahoo or choose to stay with Google, it is whether the millions of people world wide decide to do so and whether the millions of businesses decide to advertise there…

As for living without the correct updates for “a few weeks isn’t going to make a big difference”, I would whole heartedly agree…I just don’t like to get promises that aren’t kept…

@Adam
I have found the UBl does do a good job of getting your listing into several critical lists that are otherwise difficult to access (ie Axciom) and into a fair number of other perhaps less important ones as well. The question really is how are you measuring the results?