Notable

So it turns out that Trondheim Kommune’s short-sightedness is among the reasons we can’t see satellite imagery of Trondheim via Google maps (See article “Google Fog Over Downtown” ). The local map and survey office (Kart og oppmålingskontoret) has chosen to prioritize their revenue stream over making the satellite imagery available to its citizenry through channels other than their own, cumbersome, map application. It turns out that they sell map data and imagery—the same data which we as tax payers certainly pay them to administer and make available. [Read more]

Despite the fact that Trondheim is the 3rd largest city in Norway the outer edges of the city have satellite imagery on Google Maps, while the downtown and university areas are missing. Most of the hotels in town can’t be seen. The cathedral (Nidarosdomen) can’t be seen. The main university campus (NTNU Gløshaugen) with thousands of students is absent; but Lade and Leangen we have. An Adressa article mentioned the issues in April under the banner “Google Fog Over Downtown“, and I waited patiently for a change. But no. The article got no more of a response than the one can find online. I shot off a Get Satisfaction posting. Google participates, but we shall see.

I am a big fan of Google Maps and the accompanying APIs. So I have been waiting patiently for about a year and a half for satellite images of downtown Trondheim to become available so that I could start using them. However, I hadn’t expected to wait this long. Google is fast, improved things all the time, and I was sure it would only be a matter of months. But it wasn’t. Despite the fact that Trondheim is the 3rd largest city in Norway the outer edges of the city have satellite imagery on Google Maps, while the downtown and university areas are missing.

I am certain the imagery exists somewhere. It would have been odd for those areas of the city most interesting to visitors and tourists to have been omitted from the same processes that provided the detailed satellite imagery of the outying areas (the burbs)? Most of the hotels in town can’t be seen. The cathedral (Nidarosdomen) can’t be seen. The main university campus (NTNU Gløshaugen) with thousands of students is absent; but Lade and Leangen we have. An Adressa article mentioned the issues in April under the banner “Google Fog Over Downtown“, and I waited patiently for a change. But no. The article got no more of a response than the one can find online.

Google map help: Information is added as it becomes available from our data providers”. The Norwegian version states that data in Norway is delivered by NAVTEQ and TeleAtlas. Satellte images are from DigitalGlobe and MDA Federal.

All fine and good. But it has been a long time. The issues isn’t out-dated imagery, it is missing imagery.

While interesting developments on the 3D map front are underway in Oslo with Googles blessing, nothing is happening in Trondheim, Google Norway headquarters. Unable to contact Google directly (thwarted by Google’s notorious but undersandable loop of FAQ and contact forms) I shot off a Get Satisfaction posting. Google participates, but we shall see. I suspect that Trondheim’s local government may themselves be the culprits, perhaps holding onto the existing data to inhibit the competition with the locally produced map service or simply hoping to make a profit?

Maps Related:

• Overview of Google Maps and Google Earth (Norwegian – from IME – Faculty)
• Where is downtown (Hvor er sentrum – Adressa.no 21.04.08)