Me and Google

A year ago last summer, when we were looking for houses to buy, my friend, Debbie, noticed a listing on the internet for the perfect house (which we did end up buying), but the Google map for the neighborhood was confusing- there were two consecutive streets with the same name.  Which street was the one with the house for sale?  From time to time, I noticed that Google glitch on the map- and last week decided to let them know their map was wrong.

I guess it’s not an uncommon thing for Google to make mistakes, because there is actually a form to fill out when you spot an error.  I compared their map with the satellite image and discovered that several little streets off the thru street were labelled incorrectly. The error started when they misidentified a driveway as a street- and then got off for the next four streets ending up with an extra street, which they named the same as ours. I filled out the form, and they responded that they would look into it.

Less than a week later, they wrote me an email saying “You were right!”, and that they had corrected the problem. I checked the map and discovered that they had now correctly named the street before ours with its correct name- but had left that name on the street before that one and continued the incorrect sequence (including labeling the driveway as a street).  Aaack!

So, on Saturday I walked the neighborhood taking photos of houses, streets, and signs to make sure I was accurate- and wrote them again.  I haven’t heard anything back yet.

I took my husband’s new Canon Powershot SX50 with me on the walk. I’m trying to learn it, because its zoom has a fantastic reach (and it shoots RAW!), and I plan to use it for wildlife photography.  I’ve already customized 3 buttons on it with my settings, so I won’t interfere with his AUTO settings.  All of today’s photos were taken with this nifty camera. For me, the most difficult part is controlling the zoom- so I need to practice on some backyard birds.