Google maps

[bagpuss63]

Dont know which subject...
Does anyone know why Google maps are so out of date? My address and 3 others I have looked at today are either October 2008 or up to March 2009. Thats over 3 years ago. My childhood 1st home was knocked down, noticed it around 2007, yet the 2009 image, is now of rest of street similar or rebuilt. The image seemed at the time to disapear quickly. If they did it before within 2 years, why approching 4 years for some? just curious. Thanks

[heathfield]

Just think for a moment about the enormous task Google has set themselves in providing pictures and maps of the whole world. Updating it all, bit by bit, takes time. And updating the centre of Shanghai, for example, would probably be given priority over the small town I live in.

[bagpuss63]

I know that, but they updated it 2 years last time which was my point-I thought the satalite did it every 2 year. I heard mark little (once Joe mangle in Neighbours) often say on the Wright Stuff in 2008/2009 he puts 'F...k off' in his garden when he thinks its due, so it will be blanked out.

[hc4361]

Do you mean Streetview?

[heathfield]

Many people think that satellite images are the basis of what you see on Google Earth. It's not. Because the US military places strict limits on the resolution of satellite photos available for public use, aerial photography is used for the higher resolution images. It's slower than using satellite data, takes much more arranging, and the area of ground covered by aircraft photos is a lot smaller. This results in longer post-processing to join images together. My town was originally shown well out of focus with about 70% cloud cover. This lasted from the beginning up to last year, when it was updated. The update is somewhat sharper, but there's still some 5% cloud! This is in contrast to images of a nearby city, where you can tell the make of parked cars, and see the colour of clothes that pedestrians are wearing. Priority to population density again! (By the way, I prefer to use Bing maps for local "satellite" views - their images are much sharper than Google's, and have no clouds in the way!)