socialmedian: Remainders - Stuff We Didn't Post (and Why) [Remainders]

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Remainders - Stuff We Didn't Post (and Why) [Remainders]

Source: Gizmodo

Nov 04, 2009

Summary

Google and the Phantom Town of Argleton...10 Years of Steve Jobs' Apple Product Unveilings...AT&T's Foray Into In-Car Satellite TV Goes Miserably Wrong...Robots Will Soon Learn How to Smell Fear

For ages, map makers have protected their own maps by adding little landmarks and towns that don't exist, sort of a hiding-in-plain-sight watermark. Well, the Telegraph UK reported that it had spotted one such town in a Google Map, which was using Tele Atlas data. Argleton, in Lancashire, simply doesn't exist, even though you can plainly see it. What happened? Apparently, the name was quite possibly sucked up with other data when Tele Atlas' map makers were busy inputting info from old maps. This isn't unusual, though you'd think there'd be a more rapid fact checking process. By the way, we didn't cover it because nowadays, the story isn't really whether or not Tele Atlas is stealing maps from old dead cartographers, but whether or not Google is stealing the map business from Tele Atlas. [Telegraph UK via Valleywag]