back to article Google erases G8 venue from Earth: Microsoft doesn't

As all the world that cares knows, the leaders of the eight most powerful nations in the world have just been holding a summit meeting at the Lough Erne Resort in Northern Ireland. Most accounts suggest that this is a 5-star golfing hotel complex, but according to Google Maps and Google Earth it is just a muddy field: Damn, …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. RAMChYLD
    Boffin

    I'm sure the google maps view is from the past

    But it's the far past. I mean, Google earth says that the housing estate I live in is surrounded by a jungle. In real life said patch of green vanished over a decade ago to make way for adjacent housing estates.

    Google must not have been getting the latest images for some reason.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I'm sure the google maps view is from the past

      ...Or selective censorship? If I was a G8 elite, I'd be happy to know activists couldn't use the G-man's maps to locate me! But wait, I am one.....

      /E Schmidt

    2. AndyS

      Re: I'm sure the google maps view is from the past

      The street view imagery is up to date for the resort though. Oddly my house, also in Northern Ireland, is shown under construction in the aerial view, but isn't there at all in the street view. We moved in 8 months ago, so aerial is under a year old, street view at least 18 months (but could be a lot more).

      So... some images are more up to date than others.

      Which maybe isn't a very profound conclusion.

      1. Goldmember

        Re: I'm sure the google maps view is from the past

        It isn't odd at all, Maps and Street View are separate entities. Google buys up old, outdated satellite images for use in maps, and as far as I can remember doesn't actually own its own satellite. Street View is Google's own creation and has its own of pictures, the updating of which is ongoing. My street had 4 year old pictures already on street view but new ones appeared last year, for instance.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Where's Eadon?

    Look, look Microsoft fail, look!!!!1111

    1. dogged
      WTF?

      Re: Where's Eadon?

      Upvoted for the joke, but how is this Microsoft fail?

      If Bing shows what's actually there and Google doesn't show what's there, how come Bing is the one that's failing?

      I are confuzzled.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Where's Eadon?

        AC upvoted (beat me to it!). Anyway it ought to be "MICROSOFT SECURITY EPIC FAIL".

        Dogged -- there is no fail, but Eadon would find some.

        1. Parax

          Re: Where's Eadon?

          "Dogged -- there is no fail, but Eadon would find some claim it was."

          There I fixted it.

    2. This post has been deleted by its author

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Where's Eadon?

      Now what's worse for the little child, the fact that Googles maps are wrong, or

      GOOGLE CENSOR PUPPET OF US GOVERMENT FAIL!

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It never happened.

    The Commissar Vanishes.

    Ignorance is Truth.

  4. graeme leggett Silver badge

    Google extortion?

    "nice place. Be a shame if anything happened to it. Like disappearing off the face of the internet"

    1. frank ly

      Re: Google extortion?

      That would be an interesting marketing angle for large commercial concerns that rely on people attending for their profits.

  5. graeme leggett Silver badge

    Google pyschology

    If we can't see the G8 summit, then they can't see us. Or our questionable tax arrangements.

  6. Khaptain Silver badge

    Oops - They forgot to remove the Streetview Images

    The main overhead images date from 2013, look at the bottom of the screen for the date. They have obviously been replaced by older images.

    BUT, oh dear they forgot to remove the streetview images which are more than detailed enough ( event though they date back to 2009)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Oops - They forgot to remove the Streetview Images

      streetview is no good for the nork nukes. Or an amphibian approach by a team from Mars (purely hypothetical, I haste to add, we arrive in peace)

      well, on a more serious note, what exactly did happen? Was it that the "relevant personnel" who contacted google and asked, nicely, to foil the potential tree-huggers trying to swim across, were not aware of the existence of MS imagery? Since this happens on British soil, I'm sure the power in charge, i.e. Ms May, is due to fall on her sword, shortly, for this gross oversight of basic security measures, non?

    2. RussellMcIver

      Re: Oops - They forgot to remove the Streetview Images

      Those are just generic date stamps that Google plaster over everything, they don't refer to the actual date of the image data.

      For example all the imagery from around my house is copyright 2013 but dates from ~2009.

  7. Bob Vistakin
    Facepalm

    Whereas Apple maps has it in a car park in Grimsby?

    "Siri, Apple Maps are clearly a vastly inferior attempt to copy what Google does best. Have you any suggestions regarding what we could do for IOS7 in a similar vein?"

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Whereas Apple maps has it in a car park in Grimsby?

      Little Grimsby or Great Grimsby?

  8. Craig 28

    I think someone needs to get in touch with the campaign for real time, someone's obviously been monkeying around with time travel again.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Mushroom

    Missed Opportunity

    Google could have erased Ireland entirely and saved everyone a lot of bother, ESPECIALLY if they waited until the "G"crats had arrived.

    While thinking in that vein, could I ask Google to erased DisneyLand Paris; that bunch of tossers who were still selling tickets to all and sundry despite the fact a strike had shut them down, and the ONLY things you could do inside were buy Disney tat and walk around looking at the picket lines???

    Nuke because I had to get the credit card company to do a charge-back as Disney refused a refund.

    1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
      Trollface

      Re: Missed Opportunity

      > despite the fact a strike had shut them down

      Ah! A french company where the strike status is actually different from the non-strike one?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Missed Opportunity

        That isn't the place in Ireland where Google taxes are done by any chance?

  10. druck Silver badge

    If you look on Google Earth with the historical imagery feature, the empty field is from 2004, there is one showing the resort from 2010, but it is in black and white for some reason.

    1. Merlin

      Beat me to it

      First thing I thought of when I read the story. At first I thought the B&W was some sort of infrared artifact but there are clear shadows. Perhaps moon shadows?

  11. Wanda Lust

    Simples

    While conspiracy theories make for vicarious interest the simple answer may be that it's more often, than not, cloudy & wet in those parts so the probability of getting a clear visible overpass is low. Microsoft and Google obviuosly using different image suppliers.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Is it on Apple maps?

    1. Tom_

      It might be somewhere.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        40km south of Bejing...

  13. ukgnome
    Trollface

    Conspiracy theory !

    Both maps are correct - Bing shows the public hologram of a twee golf course and hotel whilst Google shows the truth, if you zoom in you can clearly see the opening to the lower forth dimension.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I won't dare

    to share my vision looking at those pics, given the gea-summ and... oh no, they're already outsi

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Facepalm

    Google lightens the image to reduce detail

    The Google images in north west Scotland, where twice a year NATO live-firing war games happen, are degraded by lightening the images when zoomed in, all the time, not just during "Joint Warrior". Bing doesn't do this, and their imagery is more recent anyway. Makes you wonder if Google are prove something.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Google lightens the image to reduce detail

      Pardon ?

      Where exactly ?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Linux

        Re: Google lightens the image to reduce detail

        Re: Pardon?

        If you zoom in on areas along the far north west coast of Scotland, you'll eventually get to a zoom level that sort of fades the detail. (North of Ullapool, south of Durness)

        Mildly bemused by the downvote in the previous post, as I'm genuinely puzzled about why Google does this. It's quite irritating. There is a group here working on archaeological sites for which aerial photography is superb. An example:- recently an unerected standing stone was discovered, very far west for such an artefact. It's actually visible in the Bing imagery, but once you get to that critical zoom point in Google you get that annoying fade. Also frustrating personally, as while I'm not particular Google-friendly, I'm definitely on the Eadon side of the Microsoft divide, yet find myself grateful for their offering.

        Tux, 'cos he got me here!

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Google lightens the image to reduce detail

          Hi QL

          There is no conspiracy, honest. ;-)

          The difference between Google & Bing is solely down to their respective dataset provider's useable coverage, (Bing having paid for exclusive rights to the best current available, possibly 25cm/px).

          The area you refer to, has fairly reasonable oblique coverage, (AIUI, Bing's rendering engine can re-project oblique to vertical), but poor vertical coverage, (AIUI, required by Google Map's rendering engine).

          If you look in Google Earth, their source for that specific SW trending NE coastal zone, is probably 1m/px, and very badly affected by haze, (possibly oversampled, hence the funny water colour/pixellations).

          GetMapping have been struggling since 1999, with aircraft availability, against weather conditions, (cloud cover & haze), to collate a coherent set of commercial quality vertical imagery for Scotland, (30cm/px or better).

          Their primary targets being commercially viable areas, i.e. densely populated, (where 6cm/px is getting to be the expected norm), but NW Scotland ticks few commercial boxes.

          Until fairly recently, their website's coverage maps displayed for each available resolution. For Scotland, these clearly showed as extremely stripey, (particularly so in NW, and Peterhead, areas). Since processing their 2008/9's aquisition campaigns, they've rationalised these into a single coverage map, which looks almost presentable.

          http://www2.getmapping.com/Support/Aerial-Photography-Coverage

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Thumb Up

            Re: Google lightens the image to reduce detail

            Thanks for the detail. While any conspiracy theory is, of course, more attractive, I'll let locals know it's likely not military-related as soon as I can make myself heard above the noise of helicopters over the house....

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: Google lightens the image to reduce detail

              LOL Helicopters.

              To clarify, when I said "currently available", I'd mean't commercially, which Google are prepared to pay for.

              The fade when zooming in, lowres zoomed-out, hires zoomed-in, you are switching between viewing 2 entirely different datasets, acquired at different times, in different conditions.

              N.B. The haze in the Bing imagery, isn't that much better, just being higher-res makes it more tolerable.

              If you think the imagery is bad on Google, try! Yahoo! Maps!. ;-)

              Under the government's OpenData initiative, you could request tasking a GR4A to spend a couple of days over LFA14. E Schmidt could then petition his buddy @#10 for access.

              For an alternative date set, if you can tolerate their f*ckwittedly intrusive watermarking, try -

              http://magic.defra.gov.uk/MagicMap.aspx

              For a laugh/see the effects of oblique reprojection, go to http://binged.it/145lueX

              its Bing's "Aerial Detailed View" of Kyle of Lochalsh pier, @ 100ft zoom. Observe the open-hatched "banana boat". Switch to "Aerial Bird's Eye View", then "Rotate Right" through 360 degrees.

          2. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

            Re: Google lightens the image to reduce detail

            Further complicated by the fact that Scotland only appears once every 100years

  16. The BigYin

    Let's assume a few things here

    1) I am an evil minded terrorist/super-villain

    2) I can amass enough people/equipment to make a viable assault on the G8 summit

    3) I can do all this in total secrecy without tipping off the CIA etc.

    Am I going to be thwarted by Google erasing some pictures? Err...no. Maybe I'll just go and buy, I dunno, a paper map! Or use one of my super-secrect-deepthroat-agents to procure detailed terrain info. Or any number of other things.

    This is has security-purely-for-looks all over it.

  17. Wardy01
    Happy

    Yup ... where is Eadon

    I too am waiting for some Microsoft dig from Eadon.

    Is he on holiday or something?

    1. dogged

      Re: Yup ... where is Eadon

      Unlikely. He was being retarded about Typescript earlier.

  18. Barrie Shepherd

    Just move your street view man onto the road shadow and miraculously the building appear - Bad google!

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    'Perhaps the Google pic is ... from the future of the site, rather than the past'

    .....Or here's an alternative twist on that. With special thanks to the NSA / Google .... Welcome to North Korea net censorship folks. Our 'Great Leaders' have decided it isn’t necessary for you to know where the elite are meeting….

  20. morebewon

    Political mapping

    Neither mapper has updated sat views of US Northeast after Hurricane Sandy for political reasons.

    Eastern New Jersey looks like clouds were daubed in with a sponge. GPS will have you swimming as well.

  21. Jelliphiish
    Joke

    for the record

    if google make the bermuda triangle dissappear for April Fools day next year, it's because i told them to. ok?

    just putting it out there...

  22. Chris Cartledge
    Pint

    Hysterical data

    Google did not do a very thorough job! You only have use Google Earth to View Historical Imagery to see that the complex was indeed here (in black and white) in the image data 3/7/2010 (7 March).

  23. Wiibloke
    FAIL

    Ironic really because the G8 leaders are all over the resorts Facebook page.

  24. Ian Tresman

    Outdated aerial imagery

    I've found that much UK Google aerial imagery is over 5 years old, which is a great shame as there are many missing roads and developments, but on the other hand, it is completely free.

    I'm surprised that Google doesn't create its own aerial imagery, and sell some of it to commercial interests.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Outdated aerial imagery

      I've found that much UK Google aerial imagery is over 10 years old

      Corrected that for you.

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like