[OSGeo-Discuss] Obfuscation of data around 7.22n, -71.12W, no sources exist???

[Dave Patton]

Wilfred L. Guerin wrote:
> I am driven to ask this to the community, since there is absolutely no
> coherent data sets from any source we've found over many years,
> including the local governments, for the area around 7.12N,-71.22W and
> eastward to the -71.22W lattitude southward and a 50-100km radius.

> Last week, I was notified by a student that a google map query for
> "7.22n,-71.12w" or any derivative resolved to a place called "SPY
> HILL, Sasquachegan, Canada" and a specific selection of roads there.

It's The Village of Spy Hill, Saskatchewan, Canada:
http://vila.sasktelwebsite.net/

The reason your student got this result is because
a search for "7.12N,-71.22W" gets interpreted as
a request to find an Address, not a latitude/longitude
pair, and if you have 'the right map' displayed in
Google Maps, it finds the address '12' on Highway 22
in The Village of Spy Hill. Load the Google Maps page,
and before doing the search, zoom out so the whole
world is shown on the map, and you get different
results(i.e. addresses in Hungary, Poland, etc.).

If you formulate the search 'properly'(there are a
number of forms to use to do this, including
+7° 7' 12", -71° 13' 12", 7.12N,71.22W, etc)
Google Maps will show the proper location.

-- 
Dave Patton

System Developer
National Forest Inventory
Pacific Forestry Centre
Natural Resources Canada

Degree Confluence Project:
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OSGeo FOSS4G2007 conference:
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Personal website:
Maps, GPS, etc.
http://members.shaw.ca/davepatton/