Google Maps: When Technology Gets It Wrong April 12, 2007
Read more Gizmodo UK , Motoring , Online , Technology
There are times when even the most funky of technologies screws up. Take Google Maps, for instance, which has been lauded and criticised for allowing people to improperly use billion-dollar satellite equipment to spy on people shagging in their backyards, or other dubious uses of the zoom function.
However, all that can be forgiven if something puts a big, shit-eating grin on your face. Try this:
1. Go to Google [that's google.com]
2. Click on Maps
3. Click on ‘Get Directions’
4. Type in "new york" to "paris, france" in the destination bar
5. Scroll down to direction No: 24 and read
Have a nice day
Thanks to Dara for the heads-up.-Martin Lynch
Editor and Contributor | Martin Lynch
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Comments
Hah, nice one!
That's very amusing. Seems to work for most W European capitals. It has a fondness for Le Havre because if you choose London or Dublin as destinations, it still routes the swim to France and then routes you on ferries. Surely it would be a better route to swim to Ireland or the UK directly?
Bit late, aren't you? I personally think this is not a flaw in the software but a "joke" some people at Google thought of. And it has definitely been circulating the web for the past 2 weeks.
Variants on this have been around for a little while. It's not a flaw as the guy above said - it was some coders at Google having a laugh.
Yes...But think how many dumbfounded new yorkers will believe that this is truly the only route to paris...
Splash.
And it takes 29 days to get there according to google!
For people who can't be bothered to actually see what it says themselves, it says: "swim across the Atlantic"
Yeah, it's obviously going to be a joke.
It dont mean swim across it, it means get a ferry......gosh are u people that dumb?
Yes - a ferry would be useful for that trip. Well done.
"It dont mean swim across it, it means get a ferry......gosh are u people that dumb?"
No Jimmy, it really does mean swim across the Atlantic Ocean, this was a joke that was allowed to remain in the maps system.
Here's a route that goes along with this, but should really only take about 15 miles....
http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&q=chatteris%20to%20ely&um=1&sa=N&tab=wl
I am a location Scout in the Film Business and had a caravan of cars going to scout locations for a commercial. I made a map using Google Maps and the address for the WalMart Supercenter in Rosemead 1827 Walnut Grove Ave is correct but Google places the pointer about a mile North of where the store is. We had to call walmart and turn everyone around and head south to Rush st and Walnut Grove in Rosemead Ca, where the store actually is. . .
Um, it DOES mean swim. if you calcuated the mph, it as 5 mph. .the average swimming speed of a human.