This list was released as Wikipedia document on Thu 12th April: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_places_blurred_out_on_Google_Maps
There are many, many updates and additions already (and it was expected!)
The places are from USA, France, Netherlands, Russia and Asia.
covered at http://www.digg.com/tech_news/What_Is_Google_Hiding_List_Of_Places_Blurred_Out_on_Google_Maps too.
This place is without name and description: http://maps.google.com/maps?z=14&ll=39.496888,-74.375982&t=k |
The list is up for deletion....and that black square is pretty weird. Does anyone know what that position looks like in Google Earth? |
But is there anything there? Like a military base or anything? |
The screenshot you have Phillipp is without doubt just a water droplet. |
I've been noticing these spots for the past six months – it's a very interesting twist on "free information" model. My points of interest are on the coast of Italy, between Genoa and Pisa, the city of La Spezia and all surrounding coastline is blurred – and it's a big area for Italian Naval operations, I guess. Anyway, there are many sailors wandering around on leave from time to time...Too bad cause I wanted to see the beaches there. Also in Switzerland, in the Lauterbrunnen valley, near Interlachen. Both spots recommended years ago by Rick Steves, h'm. I wonder if he gets his vacation spot tips from international miliary folks... |
While some of these locations are actually censored data as performed by the company or government who supplied the data to Google, other locations are data errors which occurred in most cases during the process of taking or processing the photos. You can read more about this, and find a link to a complete compendium of all reported errors (and censorship) for Google Earth, in this article from Google Earth Blog:
http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2007/01/google_earth_data_er.html
The linked forums also provide you with an opportunity to report errors to Google. Google's image processing staff officially monitors these forum threads and is puts the errors in its database for future correction. |
The Wikipedia document title has been changed from "List of places blurred out on Google Maps" to "Satellite images censored by Google Maps" now.
I think that it gives an impression that Google makes this censorship business. |
The old name was much better. |
Yes, much better and it's not Wikipedia's job to share information is the censor Google or no. But there are a lot of opinions posted to related Articles_for_deletion section: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/List_of_places_blurred_out_on_Google_Maps
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And now there is a different title again: List of map locations with missing or unclear data
The new URL includes this name too: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_map_images_with_missing_or_unclear_data |
Ooops, wrong text string copied from the clipboard, the title is:
"Satellite map images with missing or unclear data" |
I think it's just really really deep water in a square like arrangement. |