With World War III seemingly put on hold, those who were trying to follow the Russian skirmishes in Georgia have now been told why Google Maps was not the place to tell your Tbilisis from your South Ossetias.
Those people who were urgently seeking out more information about the Eastern European nation were mystified to find that the normally reliable Google maps had next to no information about the country.
Google engineers have, as usual, been quick to explain this knowledge gap from a company that prides itself on knowing everything.
"The most obvious question is, why doesn't Google Maps show any cities or roads for Georgia, or its neighbors (sic) Armenia and Azerbaijan?" the Google blog states.
"The answer is we never launched coverage in those countries because we simply weren't satisfied with the map data we had available. 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."
It's obviously a bit annoying for Google that their missing maps were highlighted, so if you are planning to start a war in one of the world's smaller countries could you at least email the search supremos and let them know ahead of time?
Your comments (7) Click to add a new comment
blueskythinker
August 13th 2008
7. Georgia must be country. Else why did Ray Charles make a song about it?
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philocrates
August 13th 2008
6. I think you're right Lyrikilollos (or whatever your name is)
Georgia doesn't exist.
Neither does Europe.
Nor the world, or the Universe come to think of it.
We're all just a by-product of your god-like imagination.
I wish I knew you in the real world...together we could take over.
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calcio
August 13th 2008
5. The poor journo that wrote this is probably ACTUALLY crying because of you lyricki - don't you realise how fragile these people's egos are?
If my petty namecalling made things just a tiny bit better for him, then sir, I have performed a service
numnuts
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lyriki11
August 13th 2008
4. I like how me actually DENYING A COUNTRY exists is enough to garner abuse.
I think it was pretty obvious that I was just being sarcastic and having some fun...I've asked everyone else here and they've all agreed.
I think Google Maps is great, and this article is well-informed.
Does that make things better?
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calcio
August 13th 2008
3. @lyricki
You idiot...
"The blog was obviously being ironic."
Riiight.
Numnuts.
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nicolasmerritt
August 13th 2008
2. The UN lists both the Netherlands and Georgia as fully sovereign member states, so I am not sure who is making stuff up here - the Secretary General or Lyriki11.
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