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Location based ignorance - by Multimap

Why are the big mapping services so crap? If you want to find a place - in London - what are the chances that Google Maps or Multimap won't know it? Answer: pretty good chances, actually!

In London, there are a lot of nice open green spaces; it's one of London's greater charms. One of London's most beautiful green spaces is an inner London park: Clissold Park. Go to Multimap, if you like, and type "Clissold Park" into the "search" box.

Doesn't exist.

East London has its own jewell of green: Victoria Park. It has a boating lake, a children's zoo, miles of jogging track, bandstands, sports fields, trees.

Not there, no, nothing of that name. Finsbury Park? Yes, Multimap knows that; it's a Tube station. Move along, no parks to see here.

Here's the thing that provokes rage: if it thinks it knows the location, there's no way of telling it!

Type "Clissold Park" and you get a twenty-two "possible" hits, including (obviously!) "Listooder Park, Ballynahinch, County Down, Northern Ireland, BT24 7" and "Clissold Road, Isle of Wight" - none of the rest bearing the slightest resemblance to the search item, except for the word "Park" in it.

So since there isn't a hit, the Multimap software kindly offers you the option of telling them about it. You click on a "let us know" tag. It says "Thank you." No chance to tell them any details.

But if you type "Finsbury Park" then Multimap reckons it knows all about that. So no need to ask you if this is the right place, is there? Ungrateful little wretch; we gave you a hit! Piss off!

No wonder businesses like Sky TV send engineers out to fit dishes to four-storey apartment blocks without actually looking at a picture of the address first. Really, you have to admit, they can't be too optimistic about what they'd find.

(Of course, with Multimap, you can search for your place visually. You can even find Victoria Park, if you know it's near Bow. And you can even mark the boating lake as "favourite" and yes, if you click on it, it will go there. Except, if you open the link in a different "tag" it won't go there! It will open the URL in the address box at the top of the browser. Which will be the original query. Which it won't know.)