-------- Original Message --------
Subject:        Google Maps/Earth as sources
Date:   Mon, 6 Aug 2012 12:37:48 -0400
From:   Fry, Michael <[log in to unmask]>
To:     Maps, Air Photo, GIS Forum - Map Librarianship
<[log in to unmask]>



Some of this has been discussed here before (search the archives for a
2008 thread entitled "Google Earth miss-matches") but I thought I'd try
to get an update...

How do you all regard Google Maps, Google Earth, Bing Maps, etc. as
sources for accurate boundary-related data? Aside from several
high-profile mistakes (e.g., http://goo.gl/nP6ev and
http://goo.gl/0gKfH), how dependable do you think Google, Bing, etc. are?

I understand that Google gets more than half of its boundary files from
the State Dept's Office of the Geographer, so there certainly are places
where boundary data comes from a highly reputable source. But it's not
clear to me how reliable and accurate the depicted boundaries are at
large scales. My primary concern is that users can zoom way in--to
scales much larger than most anything they'd ever see in print--and may
draw conclusions about the boundaries that the underlying data, if not
also the legal documentation, don't actually support.

Am I right to think that boundaries, at the very least, should be viewed
skeptically, particularly at large scales?

Thanks.
mf

--
Michael Fry
Senior Map Librarian
National Geographic Society
1145 17th St. N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20036
202.857.7098 <tel:202.857.7098>
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