Google Maps has become such an essential tool it can create huge headaches if locations aren't labeled properly.
When the bypass around Innisfail opened, shifting Highway 54 from the town's core to its western edge, but the stream of industrial vehicles didn't follow, Colin Whymark knew something needed to be done.
“The main issue was truckers were driving up and down the middle of Main Street,” said the community peace officer. “We were working hard at getting them off there.”
At the turn of the century, Google wasn't even the most popular search engine. But over the past few years the company has quickly wormed its way into almost every aspect of our lives, from serving as a global newspaper, to maintaining self-publishing platforms like Blogger and YouTube, to offering the most powerful maps on the planet, hands down.
Having traffic sent the wrong way on the service was a big deal. Drivers heading towards Innisfail's western industrial area were being instructed by Google to turn into Innisfail on the north overpass, and drive through downtown on what was labelled “Highway 54.” Just as concerning was the secondary route, which routed traffic north to the Innisfail Auction Mart, before sending vehicles straight past the school zone.
“That's what the problem was: it wasn't updated,” Whymark said, noting he had discovered the issue by canvassing truckers who hadn't caught on to the new route. “The guys were saying, ‘Well look, my Google Maps says I'm supposed to go straight through town.'”
Whymark surfed to a customer service area of Google's website and shot off a quick note informing them of the highway changes.
The Town of Innisfail was also concerned about being misrepresented on the mapping application for tourism and business reasons.
“Certainly in the age of technology that map is immensely important,” said Communications and Marketing Coordinator Alanna Lindl. “If Google doesn't have us on the map that's an opportunity that's missed for us.”
Lindl contacted the company once last year and again this year, hoping for an update, including having newer subdivisions added to the map.
“So many people rely on their electronic devices to research and plan their trip,” she said. “It's how people locate us.”
Over at Discovery Wildlife Park they've had their own trials and tribulations showing up on Google Maps.
“It's just a pain in the butt for us,” said owner Debbie Rowland. “We tell people not to use it.”
In order for the zoo to display properly on the website they had a web developer help them create a fictitious address to submit.
A couple of months back, Google showed up.
“Here they were driving around with their little cameras on top of their car with a big ‘Google' down the side,” Whymark said, noting the vehicle had to contend with the town's revitalization project. “They were still doing construction downtown.”
Currently areas like Hazelwood Estates and Upland Aspen are marked on Google Maps, although not all the newer Hazelwood streets match town records and a search for the new public works building points to the wrong side of the railroad tracks. While the QEII and Highway 590 east of Innisfail have Street View in place, there is none available of the town itself. The map provides a more complete picture of Innisfail than Apple's Maps, which shows fewer roads in the Hazelwood area, for example.
But most importantly, Main Street now displays as 50 Street on Google Maps, with the bypass selected for trips to the industrial zone.
“Before the trucks were running on both sides of the school,” Whymark said. “It's curbed a lot of trucks.”
Google confirmed its Street View team was in Alberta earlier this year, adding the updated imagery will go live in the near future.
“It takes some time to stitch the collected photos into 360-degree panoramas, and run it through our automatic face and licence plate blurring technology before it goes live on Google Maps,” said Deanna Yick, a communications manager at Google. “This process can take anywhere from a few months to a year, but once it's available on Google Maps, enables people to visually explore and navigate a neighbourhood through these street-level photographs.”
