Today’s award goes to Microsoft’s Bing Maps. The Register reports:
Microsoft has misplaced Melbourne, the four-million-inhabitant capital of the Australian State of Victoria.
A search on Bing Maps for “Melbourne, Victoria, Australia” says the city is at 37.813610, 144.963100 which we’ve screen-captured above.The co-ordinates are right save for one important detail: Melbourne is at 37.8136° South. Bing’s therefore put it in the wrong hemisphere.
There’s more at the link.
Oh, well . . . what’s a few thousand miles – and a hemisphere – between friends? Watch that GPS, though, as you navigate around Australian roads looking for Melbourne. The Pacific Ocean’s a bit deeper than a local puddle!
Peter
I love maps. My biggie goof was when I was taking a sailing class and learned to read and work on charts and could not get my head around 60 minutes and 100%. I learned after I flunked the class. Some things always stay with you. Thank goodness. 🙂 I bought my grandchildren a NG globe and a current World Atlas. My first grandson is hooked on geography. Good kid.
Since you're checking the globe. Have fun with this web page.
http://www.antipodr.com
This wasn't the first major mapping problem involving Australia. Apple's sent people to the middle of the desert instead of a major metropolis. Also, Australia is shifting just fast enough (plate tectonics rule!) that older coordinates registered are now often slightly off, presenting problems for some GPS-based navigation.
When I traveled from Perth to Texas for a car club meeting, as a joke I asked Google maps how to get there.
Google said: "Drive 3946 kms to Sydney, then swim 12,066 kms to Los Angeles…"
Sadly it doesn't do that now.
C'mon. What's 3 thousand miles between friends?
How in the hell can any reputable map-maker misplace the location of a major world-famous city?
Where do they place New York City on their U.S. maps? Just north of Charleston S.C.?