Hello, ladies and gentlemen (and everybody else)!
Let me share you one almost detective story that was the same time my very beginning of using Google Maps as a local guide and, the same time, the most interesting thing I had ever done with this system.
It all started several years ago (I cannot even remember, but it’s more than three). I just was sitting in my faily’s country house, testing new notebook and internet connetion. The reason was inviting several friends for a meeting and BBQ, so I was simply trying to acess Google Maps and pick up an address of our house.
Unexpectedly, even after establishing a stable connection (it was rather difficult in that area), I didn’t succeed: there was NO address on Google Maps. More - there was no sign of existance for entire place!
Let me explain a bit: here, in Russia, many countryside regions are being placed really close to each one. And some of those are having…well, let’s call it “conflicts of interests”. It will be important for further tale. So, when one place is being shown on the map it becomes more popular, starting to have more “weight” for those who are living in and, the most important, people are starting to learn that it EXISTS.
Now the problem: there is a commonly used russian word, “Санаторий” (sanatorium). There also is a less common term, “СНТ” (S.N.T.), that is being dechiphered as “Садовое некоммерческое товарищество” {Sadovoy’e n’ekommeercheskoy’e tovarishestvo} (“incommercial gardening partnership”). And for some people those two terms, S.N.T. and Sanatorium, sounds really close. So, if you are living in S.N.T. and want to invite guests, you should be awared of a chance that they can go to some sanatorium. It sounds a bit absurd, but that thing is absolutely, and sadly, real.
So - there was no trace of my S.N.T. on Google Maps. Only in sattelite version, but you can’t use this for someone who is NOT common with modern-age technologies and maps in general. I didn’t know what to do, so - just started to browse around for a solution. And after some research learned that the only way is to put a place on the map by my own self.
Request was sent. All homes in S.N.T. had been counted, all roads had been mentioned. I just set down, postponed BBQ and waited.
After not so long time I sucessfully found a brand new location on Google Maps, with an addres and correct location. So - it was a sucess!
But not the most interesting moment.
What was - panoramic view. Since Google had recived information about “new” place, it sent a car. And that car made panoramic view…that was a huge shame for our neightboor countryside\village and a huge pleasure for us.
You see, as I mentioned above, sometimes there are conflicts. For us and our neightboors threr was several, but the most important was about the road. Saying shortly, they didn’t like us to drive near their borders, so placed a barrier. Just behind our gates.
A result before Google maps car arrived? We were not able to use the short way and had to drive the long and bad one.
After Google maps car visit? They learned that their actions can become public…and made a new road arounfd barrier (because they lost keys).
note: photos are from the described location, but not from the same time. Around one-two years later, or even more.