"Don't be evil"

[miriam_e]

That is the slogan used by Google.
Are they living up to it? We all remember how they bowed immediately to censorship in China. That was a big disappointment.
Now Georgia has disappeared* from GoogleMaps.

[*I've since been told Georgia was never on GoogleMaps, but this is no less puzzling than a recent disappearance would be. Maps of that region have been available for decades. What possible reason would there be for omitting such a world trouble-spot?]

http://twxr.us/1a5

or see on GoogleMaps itself:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=&ie=UTF8&ll=41.926803,44.648438&spn=4.119432,7.349854&z=7

Bummer.

Additional: There is a very nice 2,529 x 1,872 map on Wikipedia at
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/Georgia_high_detail_map.png
in the article there on Georgia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_(country)

Comments

[dances-withcats.livejournal.com]

I zoomed in on the large white smears and they appear to be clouds. That's not to say those clouds couldn't have been photoshopped in, because they do look rather odd and blandly white for clouds. Also, there's a whole lot of "sorry, we don't have any images at that level of zoom" stuff if you zoom in close on certain parts of the country.

[greylock.livejournal.com]

I zoomed in on the large white smears and they appear to be clouds

Not to my eyes, I have seen clouds before, which is why I thought they might be flares off metal constructions. At the speed the sats are travelling... maybe.

Am I the only one who thought Georgia looked more poked than a 14-year-old boy's face?

Also, there's a whole lot of "sorry, we don't have any images at that level of zoom" stuff if you zoom in close on certain parts of the country.

That happens, perhaps at the Government's request, perhaps because it doesn't load properly.
The two other nations east of Georgia are lacking in details too, so I think it's too early to call this a conspiracy.