Mislead by Google’s map on way to Mind Camp

Oh, nasty little online maps.

Quick, I want you to head to your favorite online map service.

Now, look at the front of the Seattle Mind Camp ticket. Type this into your map service:

2811 102nd Street Seattle WA 98168

That’s the address of the Seattle Mind Camp. But, now, look at Google Maps and what it changed the address to:

2811 SW 102nd Street Seattle WA 98168

Buzz Bruggeman (CEO of ActiveWords) and I didn’t notice this yesterday when we first did it. Buzz was driving and stayed at my house. Guess what? That address is about five miles away from the real address.

Virtual Earth takes you to the right address.

Yahoo Maps beta takes you to the wrong place, but at least warns you that it didn’t find the right address.

Lots of people got mislead by the online maps, I learned after we arrived 20 minutes late.

What saved the day? Buzz had Streets and Trips loaded on his computer and that brought us to the right address.

But, other than that, the Mind Camp was great. Buzz and I stayed until about 10 p.m. Wireless was hard to get on, but I didn’t even try after the morning. The conversations were more interesting.

The Seattle PI’s Todd Bishop took good notes. The thing I came way from it? I need to get into Second Life and understand what’s going on there. Another thing I saw for the first time was Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Tara Hunt wrote that session up too. I want to create a virtual software company in that virtual world.

Other good reports are from Rob Stevens, Eric Butler, Nancy White, and Alex Barnett — more on “Mind Camp” on Technorati.

Andru Edwards organized the event. Well done Andru and team! Bunch of photos are over on Flickr. Update: more photos are on the “Mind Camp 1.0” Tag on Flickr. Update2: I fixed that link, and Ted Leung has a great report on his blog here.

Published by

Robert Scoble

As Startup Liaison for Rackspace, the Open Cloud Computing Company, Scoble travels the world looking for what's happening on the bleeding edge of technology for Rackspace's startup program. He's interviewed thousands of executives and technology innovators and reports what he learns in books ("The Age of Context," a book coauthored with Forbes author Shel Israel, has been released at http://amzn.to/AgeOfContext ), YouTube, and many social media sites where he's followed by millions of people. Best place to watch me is on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/RobertScoble

Comments

  1. Yeah online maps are very unreliable. The Fedex and DHL guys always have a hard time finding my house, because google maps, Virtual Earth, Streets and Trips, and even Yahoo beta all have my sub division streets laid out incorrectly. When I say incorrectly I mean crazy…a cul de sac is actually a straight road and such. Unfortunitely Google didn’t want to do anything to fix it, neither did virtual earth, so maybe I’ll send some feedback to yahoo.

  2. Yeah online maps are very unreliable. The Fedex and DHL guys always have a hard time finding my house, because google maps, Virtual Earth, Streets and Trips, and even Yahoo beta all have my sub division streets laid out incorrectly. When I say incorrectly I mean crazy…a cul de sac is actually a straight road and such. Unfortunitely Google didn’t want to do anything to fix it, neither did virtual earth, so maybe I’ll send some feedback to yahoo.

  5. As much as I love looking at maps, sattelites, etc, Google Maps is not always so good for finding places. It also comes up with *really* odd directions sometimes. Mapquest is usually pretty good. But mapquest doesn’t have preeeety scrollable maps.

  6. As much as I love looking at maps, sattelites, etc, Google Maps is not always so good for finding places. It also comes up with *really* odd directions sometimes. Mapquest is usually pretty good. But mapquest doesn’t have preeeety scrollable maps.

  7. Almost forgot: my father’s been using Street Atlas USA (windows software) for I think close to ten years, and it’s always been pretty accurate in my memory.

  8. Almost forgot: my father’s been using Street Atlas USA (windows software) for I think close to ten years, and it’s always been pretty accurate in my memory.

  9. Funny, I was at mindcamp and I don’t think I saw you do anything but hang out in the common area surrounded by other MS employees sucking each others’ exhaust. Certainly didn’t see you bother to attend any sessions. Plus, looked like you were long gone by the Mech Turk presentation. Some of us stayed for the full camp. Some, I guess just like to say they were there.

  10. Funny, I was at mindcamp and I don’t think I saw you do anything but hang out in the common area surrounded by other MS employees sucking each others’ exhaust. Certainly didn’t see you bother to attend any sessions. Plus, looked like you were long gone by the Mech Turk presentation. Some of us stayed for the full camp. Some, I guess just like to say they were there.

  12. Innocent: I was in the Mech Turk presentation. I was there from 10:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. with about an hour away for dinner. So was Buzz Bruggeman

    Glad you were watching my every move. I even attended part of the Linux install fest.

  13. Innocent: I was in the Mech Turk presentation. I was there from 10:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. with about an hour away for dinner. So was Buzz Bruggeman

    Glad you were watching my every move. I even attended part of the Linux install fest.

  19. Technically, the address is S. 102nd st. They had the wrong address printed on the tickets.

    Google maps still gets it wrong though. Old Yahoo maps does too. Didn’t try the new one. I wonder if they get it wrong because the address is on Boeing property. Don’t all of the buildings at MS campus map to “1 Microsoft way”?

  21. Technically, the address is S. 102nd st. They had the wrong address printed on the tickets.

    Google maps still gets it wrong though. Old Yahoo maps does too. Didn’t try the new one. I wonder if they get it wrong because the address is on Boeing property. Don’t all of the buildings at MS campus map to “1 Microsoft way”?

  22. Innocent, I was there too. I talked to Robert briefly but had to rush off to sessions. I’m no Softie.

    Robert, Ahhhh. But is your Tablet dual-booting Windows and Ubuntu now? Were you surprised by how much easier the linux install is now than it was even a year ago?

  23. Innocent, I was there too. I talked to Robert briefly but had to rush off to sessions. I’m no Softie.

    Robert, Ahhhh. But is your Tablet dual-booting Windows and Ubuntu now? Were you surprised by how much easier the linux install is now than it was even a year ago?

  26. Scott: no, I wouldn’t load Linux on my Tablet PC.

    But, yes, they are making great strides. Personally if I weren’t a Tablet Fan, though, I wouldn’t be into Linux, I’d be a Mac user. I don’t like the fonts that the Linux machines have and the UI on the Mac is more my style.

  27. Scott: no, I wouldn’t load Linux on my Tablet PC.

    But, yes, they are making great strides. Personally if I weren’t a Tablet Fan, though, I wouldn’t be into Linux, I’d be a Mac user. I don’t like the fonts that the Linux machines have and the UI on the Mac is more my style.

  28. Heh, Rand McNally still works. :) Not much more than $10 at Walmart.

    All the geek tools and online maps and GPS gadgets in the world and they still get lost (or can’t give out the right address whatever), all going to a yet another circle-jerk wanking geek event, no less. Irony in that. 😉

    Street Atlas seems most accurate, followed by Mapquest. Then Yahoo, then Google (Google is crazy, wild goose chase maps), and lastly and most flubbed-up (nice UI tho) Street and Trips and Mappoint. I will never trust Steets and Trips, been lead astray way way too many times, the Microsoft map tools are pure evil incarnate.

  29. Heh, Rand McNally still works. :) Not much more than $10 at Walmart.

    All the geek tools and online maps and GPS gadgets in the world and they still get lost (or can’t give out the right address whatever), all going to a yet another circle-jerk wanking geek event, no less. Irony in that. 😉

    Street Atlas seems most accurate, followed by Mapquest. Then Yahoo, then Google (Google is crazy, wild goose chase maps), and lastly and most flubbed-up (nice UI tho) Street and Trips and Mappoint. I will never trust Steets and Trips, been lead astray way way too many times, the Microsoft map tools are pure evil incarnate.

  32. Yeah, I noticed the same thing about Google and Yahoo maps pointing to the wrong place. I like the GPS with Streets & Trips because that can at least get me in the right vicinity, but even that leads one astray sometimes :(

    The most accurate directions came from Andru on his blog and even he complained about the various mapping software before the event started.

    Thomas Guides for the local area provide some pretty decent maps too.

    As for Scoble being in sessions or not, he dropped in about 30 minutes in and sat next to me (for a few brief minutes) at the Ruby on Rails session, so I can vouch for him there. Also saw him in the doorway for the Mechanical Turk session.

    And no, I wasn’t watching his every move, either, he just happened to be sitting about 10 feet in front of me (different table) in the commons area (I was there before him, not vice versa) and we bumped into each other a couple other times like near that cool red electric car in the lobby.

    Funny thing Buzz said leaving the Turk session: “I don’t understand that.”

    Jeff had some problems accepting HITs because others were gobbling them up. I wonder if they will provide some sort of locking view by session so that workers can actually have enough time to read the HIT before it is gobbled up by somebody else? Might make more sense to read oldest to newest for those actually interested in being a HIT worker (doubtful anybody reading this will be).

  33. Yeah, I noticed the same thing about Google and Yahoo maps pointing to the wrong place. I like the GPS with Streets & Trips because that can at least get me in the right vicinity, but even that leads one astray sometimes :(

    The most accurate directions came from Andru on his blog and even he complained about the various mapping software before the event started.

    Thomas Guides for the local area provide some pretty decent maps too.

    As for Scoble being in sessions or not, he dropped in about 30 minutes in and sat next to me (for a few brief minutes) at the Ruby on Rails session, so I can vouch for him there. Also saw him in the doorway for the Mechanical Turk session.

    And no, I wasn’t watching his every move, either, he just happened to be sitting about 10 feet in front of me (different table) in the commons area (I was there before him, not vice versa) and we bumped into each other a couple other times like near that cool red electric car in the lobby.

    Funny thing Buzz said leaving the Turk session: “I don’t understand that.”

    Jeff had some problems accepting HITs because others were gobbling them up. I wonder if they will provide some sort of locking view by session so that workers can actually have enough time to read the HIT before it is gobbled up by somebody else? Might make more sense to read oldest to newest for those actually interested in being a HIT worker (doubtful anybody reading this will be).

  34. Could be timing - everytime I wandered through the main room, Scoble was in exactly the same place I saw him before. Of course, I was usually in various sessions so I certainly wasn’t watching his every move. But I did notice that everytime I looked at where Scoble sat he was “still there”.

  35. Could be timing - everytime I wandered through the main room, Scoble was in exactly the same place I saw him before. Of course, I was usually in various sessions so I certainly wasn’t watching his every move. But I did notice that everytime I looked at where Scoble sat he was “still there”.

  36. Innocent: I didn’t realize there was a rule that said I had to attend sessions. FooCamp didn’t have such a rule. BarCamp didn’t have such a rule.

  38. There’s no rules, if you don’t want to engage, don’t. But then you’re not really a ‘participant’, you’re an observer. Kind of a different role than you paint for yourself I think.

    But hey, I’m just a guy who writes code. Why do you care what I think?

  39. There’s no rules, if you don’t want to engage, don’t. But then you’re not really a ‘participant’, you’re an observer. Kind of a different role than you paint for yourself I think.

    But hey, I’m just a guy who writes code. Why do you care what I think?

  42. While Robert may not have hit up multiple sessions, I have to say one of the highlights of the day for me was a fantastic discussion I had with Robert, Buzz, and a handful of my good buddies on the topic of getting older folks into video games (something I think about daily for the product I work on).

    THAT was what I came to Mindcamp for… sure, the sessions were great, but I can’t think of any other scenario where such an exchange could’ve taken place.

    It was spontaneous, insightful, and got me thinking about a lot of things I hadn’t considered before.

    Had he been busy in a session, it wouldn’t have happened, so I think his availablity and willingness to chat with people was a feature, not a bug :)

  43. While Robert may not have hit up multiple sessions, I have to say one of the highlights of the day for me was a fantastic discussion I had with Robert, Buzz, and a handful of my good buddies on the topic of getting older folks into video games (something I think about daily for the product I work on).

    THAT was what I came to Mindcamp for… sure, the sessions were great, but I can’t think of any other scenario where such an exchange could’ve taken place.

    It was spontaneous, insightful, and got me thinking about a lot of things I hadn’t considered before.

    Had he been busy in a session, it wouldn’t have happened, so I think his availablity and willingness to chat with people was a feature, not a bug :)

  44. >But then you’re not really a ‘participant’, you’re an observer.

    Well, maybe I was just holding my own session there, no? The conversation was certainly interesting. I learned a lot. I found out about Second Life from an employee, for instance. I don’t remember seeing a session on that.

    But, glad you think I wasn’t participating. Again, I didn’t realize there were any rules for participating. Sorry I didn’t get the memo.

  45. >But then you’re not really a ‘participant’, you’re an observer.

    Well, maybe I was just holding my own session there, no? The conversation was certainly interesting. I learned a lot. I found out about Second Life from an employee, for instance. I don’t remember seeing a session on that.

    But, glad you think I wasn’t participating. Again, I didn’t realize there were any rules for participating. Sorry I didn’t get the memo.

  52. James: yes, but you didn’t follow the directions. Go back and try the directions again.

    Virtual Earth turns the incorrect address into the correct one.

    Google turned it into an even more incorrect one and didn’t warn me.

  53. James: yes, but you didn’t follow the directions. Go back and try the directions again.

    Virtual Earth turns the incorrect address into the correct one.

    Google turned it into an even more incorrect one and didn’t warn me.

  54. Robert,

    I’ve got an account in Second Life. I don’t use it all that much, though - turns out RL is better. But there’s some pretty interesting stuff going on in there: Make Magazine has its own piece of land, for instance. (Last time I checked, they were showing RocketBoom on the TV screens in-world). And the economy is pretty interesting, too.

    These guys have a nice blog if you’re trying to grok SL:

    http://www.idealworldmovie.com/footage/

    Introductory movie here:

    http://www.idealworldmovie.com/short/

  55. Robert,

    I’ve got an account in Second Life. I don’t use it all that much, though - turns out RL is better. But there’s some pretty interesting stuff going on in there: Make Magazine has its own piece of land, for instance. (Last time I checked, they were showing RocketBoom on the TV screens in-world). And the economy is pretty interesting, too.

    These guys have a nice blog if you’re trying to grok SL:

    http://www.idealworldmovie.com/footage/

    Introductory movie here:

    http://www.idealworldmovie.com/short/

  56. Robert, I did follow directions…I was just pointing that out, because you should have linked to the same one for all 3 sites to show that point.

  57. Robert, I did follow directions…I was just pointing that out, because you should have linked to the same one for all 3 sites to show that point.

  58. James: I did. You’re not getting the point.

    If you put the original MindCamp address in all three you get different results.

    I STARTED WITH THE ORIGINAL MIND CAMP ADDRESS.

    You’re not listening.

  59. James: I did. You’re not getting the point.

    If you put the original MindCamp address in all three you get different results.

    I STARTED WITH THE ORIGINAL MIND CAMP ADDRESS.

    You’re not listening.

  63. Haha Robert. I am listening. I do get the point. I understand fully that you started with “2811 102nd Street Seattle WA 98168.” ***AND*** I do understand that Google changed it to the incorrect one ***AND*** that Google did not even notify you of the change. I also understand the same with Yahoo! except that Yahoo! notified you. ***MY POINT*** was that your hotlink above was incorrect. Here is the link you provide:

    http://virtualearth.msn.com/?sp=adr.S%20102nd%20St%2C%20Seattle%2C%20WA%2098168

    This was for “Virtual Earth takes you to the right address.”

    Clearly your link was incorrect, because you just said “On all three services I started with this address, not with the one you see on Google:” However, your hotlink was pointed to “S 102nd St, Seattle, WA 98168”

    I wasn’t trying to argue with you, but apparently that’s how you read it. I was simply pointing something out. AND I understand that wasn’t the point of your entry, but I was just noting that it should have been:

    http://virtualearth.msn.com/?sp=2811%20102nd%20Street%2C%20Seattle%2C%20WA%2098168

    where we could have seen VE find the correct address.

  64. Haha Robert. I am listening. I do get the point. I understand fully that you started with “2811 102nd Street Seattle WA 98168.” ***AND*** I do understand that Google changed it to the incorrect one ***AND*** that Google did not even notify you of the change. I also understand the same with Yahoo! except that Yahoo! notified you. ***MY POINT*** was that your hotlink above was incorrect. Here is the link you provide:

    http://virtualearth.msn.com/?sp=adr.S%20102nd%20St%2C%20Seattle%2C%20WA%2098168

    This was for “Virtual Earth takes you to the right address.”

    Clearly your link was incorrect, because you just said “On all three services I started with this address, not with the one you see on Google:” However, your hotlink was pointed to “S 102nd St, Seattle, WA 98168”

    I wasn’t trying to argue with you, but apparently that’s how you read it. I was simply pointing something out. AND I understand that wasn’t the point of your entry, but I was just noting that it should have been:

    http://virtualearth.msn.com/?sp=2811%20102nd%20Street%2C%20Seattle%2C%20WA%2098168

    where we could have seen VE find the correct address.