9.6.09

Not Cool, Google.

Dear Google,

I'm a bit disappointed by your neglect of Romania on your Maps service. It's summer 2009, and you still aren't providing any street maps whatsoever (only a handful of major roads). Not that I'm bragging or something, but this is indeed an issue. Here are some facts to help you digest the ugly truth:

  • Romania has the 9th largest territory and the 7th largest population among the European Union member states
  • Bucharest is the 6th largest city in the EU by population within city limits
  • Bulgaria, who joined the EU at the same time, has Google street maps
  • Apple has been selling Google Maps-enabled iPhones in the country for over a year now
  • even an Android device will soon hit the local market
And the list goes on.

The worst part, though? All those questions/requests/rants on your Support page - which, as you may have imagined - still go unanswered. And you even have the nerve to list it as a first result on a search for Bucharest!

The Google Car's been spotted on numerous occasions around here during the past 6 months - great - but isn't an actual street mapping crucial before you start providing Street View? Do something, already!

Yours frankly,
An irritated customer.

10 comments so far:

SlimR said...

It's most likely that you saw norc.ro street view cars rather than Google street view cars.
check out http://norc.ro/

Mihnea said...

I know about norc.ro - but the black Opel Astra's with DE license plates are Google's.

Bogdan said...

I couldn't agree more.

Viorel M said...

Dear Google guys... we would also like to have Google Mobile App for iPhone available on romanian itunes store... c'mon, no one can say here that you have no data available..

Tudor Aursulesei said...

foloseste si tu
open street map
maps.live.com
maps.yahoo.com

felicitari, ai castigat un internets.

Marius said...

Uite, poti incerca si www.mapit.ro - e inca work in progress dar deja orasele mari sunt mapate.

Jen said...

As of last week, Romania is open for mapping in Google Map Maker (mapmaker.google.com). We have lots of people editing the map of Romania -- please help moderate (i.e. review) edits for accuracy! Learn more here: http://maps.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=155661

Mihnea said...

Thanks for the heads-up, Jen! I appreciate your response. I noticed the post on the Google Lat Long Blog today.

I'm working on a new post about this, but I need a bit of guidance: how do the edits on Map Maker actually get to the live/public version of Google Maps (without actually having to visit the Map Maker app to see the user-generated content)? Is there a certain internal approval process for that content to 'go live'?

Jen said...

Mihnea, the approval process for edits in Google Map Maker is external (i.e. other users, including some Googlers, review and approve/deny the edits). Then we periodically transfer data from Map Maker to Google Maps. The last data transfer happened on May 24th (check out this help article for details: http://maps.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=155666).

Mihnea said...

Sounds great, thanks! I'm not going to pry by asking how often these data transfers occur as I'm sure there are a lot of factors involved. :)