Places on Google Maps. Can They Still be Trusted?
James Killick collecting some damning anecdotes about the quality of crowdsourced data on Google Maps.
There are unregistered Taxi services listed at Heathrow airport.
Upon that I was shown a Google map of LHR Terminal 5 with an icon for “Bob’s Taxis” right there in the middle of the arrivals area. Not good.
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Yes, dear readers, the dreaded unlicensed taxi cab service is still there. It’s no longer called “Bob’s Taxis” and it now sounds a lot more official, but hey — I pity the poor passengers that fall for this.
Even worse, contact numbers of airlines have been replaced by scammers:
After a minute the line broke up, but they called me back… from the number +33-4-56-38-67-82 (French number that came up as DTI Publishing in Caller ID). First Red flag. He had a very strong Indian Accent (Red Flag), and was overly eager to help me
I usually try to find critical information on the business’ website instead of Google Maps; not because of scammers but because I don’t trust that businesses update their information on Google Maps.
I’ve been using Apple Maps for a while now for my personal way finding needs and I’ve had only positive experiences. So far I’ve never encountered incorrect information and the map is less littered with irrelevant data.