Launched in 2005, the Google Maps service, which now includes most cities in the world, continues to attract millions and their increased reliance on it to discover unknown places, roads and paths.
Using mainly satellite and street-level imagery as well as machine learning, this service is considered one of the best to date, with continuous modifications and added features to make it more effective for the user. Google Maps allows a user to know location-specific information about regions, cities, restaurants and cafes, in addition to determining their current whereabouts and sharing it with others in detail. This service also supports the local search feature to obtain the name of any landmark or address around the world.
It is not possible to talk about any service on the Internet without displaying its shortcomings in exchange for its advantages, and the same applies to Google Maps, which presents some gaps in performance. It is a service that needs the Internet to function, and it needs a strong connection to work reliably. Street View is not yet available in all cities, and walking directions are not currently available offline.
A German performance artist recently conducted an experiment in which he showed that we can effectively deceive Google Maps. In a posted video, the citizen wandered with 99 mobile phones in an empty street — without traffic — and Google Maps showed heavy traffic in the area as the application picked up the signals from the mobile phones.
Upon displaying his trick online, the artist quoted an anthropologist who said that the “Google Maps service has fundamentally changed our concept of what a map is,” along with how we interact with them and the technological features — and limitations — that they provide.
With this technological flaw exposed, the power of Google Maps could be called into question: do these maps function as regular networks that determine human behavior, or are they considered a means of controlling people and where they should go?
Whether when traveling or simply navigating through multi-street cities, a user demands credibility and accuracy in the information being displayed in Google Maps.
