Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Where is Georgia on Google Maps?

A few misguided sections of the mainstream media have been posing questions about the lack of map data for Georgia, even questioning whether Google has removed map data from the area because of the present conflict. Google has therefore released a statement to hopefully clarify the situation,

"We're constantly searching for the best map data we can find, and sometimes will delay launching coverage in a country if we think we can get more comprehensive data. Some of our customers have asked if we removed map data from any of these countries in response to the recent hostilities in that region and I can assure you that is not the case. Data for these countries were never on Google Maps in the first place."

Google also say that many users have told them that they would prefer to see even very basic coverage of a country than see nothing at all and therefore Google are preparing data for the handful of countries that are still blank on Google Maps. This is very good news. At the moment Google Maps does not even show the de facto independent regions of South Ossetia or Abkhazia.

If you are interested in learning more about the conflict in the area a Google Earth Community member, Catholicgauze has produced a kml of the conflict showing South Ossetia and Abkhazia and some of the areas being disrupted by fighting.

Via: Google LatLong: Where is Georgia on Google Maps?

7 comments:

  1. there's many more countries that have no google maps coverage ,not just georgia...

    in the caribbean there many countries, south america, africa....

    to say that the georgian disaster/war has an impact on this is a little over the top....

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  2. Anonymous9:06 AM

    Nice example for a situation in which an open service (http://www.openstreetmap.org/) provides better data (namely at least major roads and cities) than commercial offers.

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  3. @Alexander - As you say openstreetmap seems to have major roads and cities mapped. Interestingly Georgia is not one of the featured countries in Google's Map Maker.

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  4. Anonymous10:31 AM

    It's Tele Atlas the provider of road maps to Google Maps which don't have road maps in that area. However Navteq have road maps in Georgia which can be seen at Virtual Earth http://tinyurl.com/5hkppa

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  5. I have screens from googlemaps showing images from georgia in my blog
    http://cronicasdelatierraplana.com/?p=66
    if you search Tbilisi capital georgia you can see images with a lot of resolution and panoramio photos too

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  6. I love that Georgia US and Georgia the country can get mixed up by people. Not shocking, but still funny!

    People looking for Atlanta US, should check this out:
    Atlanta Apartments

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  7. Anonymous11:13 PM

    Darfur is not on there either. And other controversial places. Note someone said that, it's not featured on map maker.

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