Saturday, January 12, 2013

The FBI's Most Wanted on Google Maps


The FBI has created a Google Map of criminals that are wanted for bank robbery. I'm tempted to say that the biggest criminals here are the designers of this FBI map - but then I would never criticise map developers, who are after all my bread and butter.

The FBI - Bank Robbers Nationwide Map shows the location of bank robberies and allows users to view photos and physical descriptions of those wanted for the crimes. Users can search the map by 'name' (God knows what that means. Whose name are you meant to enter - the criminals??), by 'city' or by 'state'.

My major problem with this map is it is just plain ugly. I'd have liked to have seen just a little time and effort spent on the design of the map, including creating more attractive map markers and information windows. However, from browsing the map, it is is obvious that the FBI have more pressing concerns, such as employing some half decent criminal sketch artists. The biggest criminal on evidence in this map must be the sketch artist employed to create the portrait in the picture above.

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