Can you find Google’s GTA mistakes?

Google Maps is fine for the big picture, but sometimes not reliable on the level of urban detail. Here are three examples, two of which resulted in errors in the Star in print, on line or both:

1) Misspelled street name in the Christie/Dupont area:

This spelling was on the site for a while, in a story about a power outage, until a Web editor who used to live in the area corrected it. (Correct spelling is Wychcrest.)

2) East York is labelled outside the historic East York boundary (grey polygon):

3) Mislabelled park in Ajax. This wrong name was used a graphic, which ended up as a formal published correction and the fussy but in this case necessary process for correcting a graphic online.

Here's what Google shows:

and here's the corrected graphic:

There have to be more errors out there – these are just a few that we stumbled on by accident.

So: has Google led you astray? Are there roads on the map that don’t exist on the ground, or vice versa? Spelling mistakes? Leave your answers in the comment section. We’ll gather the responses and send them off to Palo Alto.

Google isn't the worst offender. MapArt’s recent atlas of the Golden Horseshoe depicts two villages outside Ancaster, Summit and Trinity (complete with a tiny pink area where the mapmaker imagines people might live), which stopped being plausible hamlets a hundred or so years ago.

Anybody trying to find these places is in for a confusing surprise.

For how many generations have mapmakers been copying each others’ work without ground-truthing it? It’s an interesting question.

Comments

[Carolyn Southey]

You asked for Google Map errors..

Here are a few:

'Malvern Recreation Centre and'

is the map info near Neilson Rd and Sewells Rd in the Malvern area of Scarborough...don't know what the 'and' might refer to.

Chesterton Shores and Chesterton Shore St. are shown on Google maps for the same street along Lake Ontario east of Port Union and Lawrence Ave in south east Scarborough. Chesterton Shore St. is incorrect. Chesterton Shores is correct for now but not for long...this road is gradually being turned into the Waterfront Trail.

Finally the Google map shows Morningside Mall at Morningside Ave. and Lawrence Ave. The mall is long gone and this area is now a big box area called Morningside Crossing.

[Andrew Stephenson]

It seems to be fairly arbitrary in deciding which parks are worth labelling. For example, in the U of T area, a couple little playgrounds tucked into the Annex are labelled, but Queens Park is not, neither as a park nor as a landmark.

"Ave Rd", although it's obvious why.

A couple neighbourhood errors: Of course the obvious "Bloor- (University to Yonge) &", the unfinished thought floating somewhere south of Richmond near City Hall. "Atrium ON Bay". Oakwood-Vaughan makes that common mistake of omitting the second A in Vaughan. While we're in the area, "York, Ontario", now directs you to a hamlet east of the Six Nations Reserve in Haldimand. Any of the other five ex-cities are recognized, in fact this is the only case I can find, of Google no longer recognizing amalgamated ex-cities.

[Leo Petr]

Most of the initial errors in the placement of Toronto's subway stations has gone away, but Google Maps still thinks that Downsview station is actually in the Wilson subway yard.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Downsview+Station,+Toronto&sll=43.740716,-79.452052&sspn=0.029548,0.038881&ie=UTF8&ll=43.739414,-79.45394&spn=0.029549,0.022573&z=15&iwloc=A

[James]

The name of the landmark Allan Gardens is misspelled as "Allen" Gardens.

[maps & gis, university of toronto]

What drives us crazy is the inconsistency in displaying the actual date of the satellite imagery. The date is actually a copyright date. Have a tour of Varsity Stadium on Google Earth Pro and check out the archives of images. You'll see that the old stadium disappears and reappears, disappears again to reappears as the new varsity stadium. In google earth it's currently a pre-construction image for the new stadium yet the date of the imagery is 2009!

[Vic]

The Junction Triangle neighbourhood in the Symington/Bloor/Dupont area is labeled "Silverthorn", even though Silverthorn is farther north-west in the Keele and Eglinton area.

Oddly enough, this is only a recent error that has been showing up for the last couple of months.

[Electric Landlady]

Interesting... If you click "Learn more" and then "Learn even more" (I'm on Google.ca at present), you get a Help page with a Resources sidebar that includes a "Fix an error on Google Maps" option. However, if you simply click "Help" in the top right corner, you don't get this sidebar at all. Clicking "Troubleshooting" doesn't give you any useful options, nor does typing "Mistake" into the Help Search box. Seems to me they could stand to make this option a little easier to find.

(Mistakes I have seen: For a long time the road my cottage is on had a typo. It's been fixed now, but Google Maps seems to think it's in Barrie. OK, Innisfil is near Barrie, true...)

[Diane]

GOOGLE errors on City of Toronto map:

The Wellesley Hospital at the corner of Sherbourne and Wellesley Streets was torn down years ago.........

[David]

Several years ago in 2006, Google Map provided driving instructions which included driving through a house on Winchester Street to get to my destination. At that time the map data was provided by NavTech and it was they who corrected the map after I had informed them of the error.

[scottd]

Following up on Vics email there are quite a few mistakes in the Dundas West area including roads that dont exist and alleys shown as roads.

[Electric Landlady]

I couldn't tell you if this is a mistake or not, but I just noticed there is a "Main Sewage Treatment Playground" at the corner of Coxwell and Eastern.

[Mr M J Breslin]

I live in Rudston Road, Childwall, Liverpool (L16 4PG) which is a long "L"-shaped road, running between Score Lane and Molton Road. From the latter junction, you run into Orton Road. All A-Z mapbooks show this correctly! Google Maps and SatNav however, show half of Rudston Road to be Orton Road, which means we have had delivery drivers - even a funeral director!- calling at houses in Rudston Road looking for addresses in Orton Road.
Also Google Maps show a university campus on Taggart Avenue, Liverpool 16, to be Liverpool John Moores University, whereas it should be Liverpool Hope University.

[Ram Kumar Shrestha]

In google map, Birthplace of Buddha sometimes seems Nepal and sometimes in India. Why still not corrected as thousand of people campaigning against its wrong information: http://worldamity.wordpress.com/2010/03/22/google-corrected-its-mistake-breaking-news/

[Paul Chomik]

More west Toronto errors.

The Queensway - Humber Bay are two unrelated communities thrust together for some reason.

Humber Bay's title is incorrectly located on the map as well, and the Ontario Food Terminal is incorrectly located. Humber Bay is also located approximately east of Park Lawn Road over to the Humber River, south of Berry Road (which is shown in blue). It should be labeled as a separate community.

The Queensway only extends west from Mimico Creek over to Kipling Avenue. As shown in green, The Queensway should be labeled separately.

Mimico's title is nowhere near the centre of town where it should be (it's not even within the boundaries of Mimico). The 'jog' showing the northwest corner of Mimico is not part of Mimico.

New Toronto's boundaries are incorrect north of Lake Shore Blvd. West for its western boundary.

Long Branch and Alderwood show major errors in their boundaries, particularly where Long Branch is shown north of the railway line (which is Alderwood), and it extends west of Etobicoke Creek south of Lake Shore Road in Mississauga.

[dan]

Bing Maps of Toronto shows several Toronto areas with misspelled labels. These include CHRISTIE PITTS, BATHHURST QUAY, YONGE - ST. CLAIRE, DOVECOURT PARK, and my personal favourite, CASA LOMO, which in Spanish translates to House of Loin.