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Google Maps search has gone really odd recently. It is terribly, terribly, confused. If I type in

if i type in	it takes me to
Surrey Quays	Elephant
Chalk Farm	the right place, which is labelled "Chalk Farm, Kensington"
West Hampstead	Britannia junction (Camden Town tube station)
Upper Clapton	Hackney Town Hall
Lower Clapton	the right place, which is labelled "Lower Clapton, Lewisham"
Cubitt Town	North Greenwich
Deptford	Ladywell
Lewisham	Ladywell
New Cross	Ladywell
Silvertown	the right place, which is labelled "Silvertown, Bexley"
North Sheen	"North Sheen, Kensington"
Hendon	High Barnet (High Street)
Golders Green	High Barnet (High Street)
Penge, London	Biggin Hill [!!!!]
West Ham	Canning Town

I would be really careful using it for navigation within London.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

janieluk.livejournal.com

That does sound rather screwy. As someone who uses Google Maps for all my navigation needs, I hope I don't end up riding my motorbike into the sea next time I try and head out of town.

From:

blue-mai.livejournal.com

woah

From:

tsuki-chama.livejournal.com

Same for me, how strange!

Though that said, you have to have the map somewhere near London before you start. Mine defaults to Bournemouth, and searching for Surrey Quays found me quays in the county of Surrey!

From:

abigailb.livejournal.com

Yes, it seems to be somewhat context sensitive. All these can also be reproduced by putting ", London" at the end.

From:

owlfish

This is vaguely comforting. Last week, I printed out a GoogleMap to show me how to get to a place on Kingsland Road, not realizing that the map showed me how to get to the same address on Shoreditch High Street, which isn't *quite* the same thing, even if it's close. I was less than a 10 minute walk from my destination, but still....

From:

abigailb.livejournal.com

This was triggered by me trying to find Pizza Tow on High Road Leytonstone. If you type "10 High Road Leytonstone" in it sends you to Ilford High Road, if you type "120 High Road Leytonstone" it sends you to High Road in Woodford Green. (I don't know whether there actually is a 10 or 120 High Road Leytonstone but still).

From:

thatmakesmemad.livejournal.com

Post codes work.
If you put in a post code in that area and then search on name it gets it right.
If you fail to use the right case then it will give you the wrong place with a suggestion of the right place with capitals in the right place.
Database query problems linking the wrong records perhaps.

From:

friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com

Agreed, Google maps really aren't that reliable. They regularly show the wrong road names in our area, that I know.

From:

abigailb.livejournal.com

They get the segment of road I work named wrong (it is the start of Wardour Street, not the end of Whitcomb Street)

The odd thing is I'm sure this used to work, and it's not like the actual labels on the map are in the wrong place, it just looks like their index is borken.

From:

squirmelia.livejournal.com

Do you still use Open Street Map at all?

From:

abigailb.livejournal.com

Yeah, increasingly, but routing is still rather experimental (and is more affected by small inconsistencies in the data). OSM gets all of these that I tried much better (assuming you type ", London" at the end).