A couple years ago I made fun of Microsoft for suggesting a trip across most of Northern Europe for going from Haugesund, Norway to Trondheim, Norway. It’s only fair then that I poke fun at Google now for suggesting that you cross Sydney Harbor (going via a toll bridge) if you merely want to go from 200 Sussex Street to 201 Sussex Street, which amounts to basically crossing the street.
Google Embarrassed in Australia | TechCrunch: “Reporters at a Sydney, Australia newspaper discovered an embarrassing flaw in Google’s Map product - Google recommends a 10.4 kilometer trip, across the harbor and back, to go the thirty steps from Google’s Sydney headquarters to a hotel located across the street. The suggested route would also include a AU$3 bridge toll. Any query for driving directions from areas east, south or west of Google’s headquarters will suggest the same detour across the harbor, using a toll tunnel or bridge.
Google is blaming MapData Sciences, the Sydney-based company that supplies the mapping data to Google, for the problem. I imagine MapData is working on a fix rather urgently.”
At least they don’t make you cross half a dozen national boundaries and a couple seas to get there.
All these map services, I wish would get “synchronized”. It’s not like construction of roads outpace technology or database updates! Nice article.