Limitations

That being said, Google Maps limitations are numerous and significant. Its portrayal of the places it is supposed to represent is first of all limited like any two-dimensional map. The use of a Mercator Projection to account for this, causes a distortion of the poles. Secondly, not all of Google's maps always match up. Sometimes when the road map is placed over the satellite images in hybrid mode, the two are out of sync. Furthermore, Google's photos can be years old and even purposely wrong. The White House and other government facility's photos are deliberately outdated (Johnson 1), and the photos of New Orleans post-Katrina, were taken down in favor of images prior to the hurricane (Associated Press 1). Google therefore not only distorts our world as a result of flaws in their ability to collect data and the imperfection of the interface, but also in order to obey governmental mandates. Google also only offers very broad photos of many parts of the world, that is the high definition available in America, shows only an error in remoter places.