Google Confirms Partnership for Parcel Data

It was a rumored for some time that Google was replacing the incumbent street centerline provider and we confirmed yesterday via Tele Atlas that Google would use its own street data for Google Maps in the United States. It was to everyone’s surprise that it has added parcel data to selected cities.

Google’s Mano Marks, Geo Developer Advocate confirmed that the company partnered with a provider for the parcel data, but he could not share anything more.

We’ll keep digging. Anything our readers can share would be appreciated.

Quote of the Week

“You want a perfect system, but until we got this higher technology, we did not have a perfect system. The new GIS system made it much more easier to locate errors.”

Peoria City Election Commission Executive Director Tom Bride on some coding errors that put some voters in the wrong district.

- Peoria Journal Star

Cost of Santa Clara GeoData Lawsuit? $500,000

Some claim it’s the largest payment of its kind in a California records disclosure dispute. The county this week turned of the sum to the First Amendment Coalition after it won the three year battle to make the county data available under the California Public Records Act. The money will ultimately all go to the law firm who argued the case.

Peter Scheer, executive director of the coalition, was pleased with the message sent: “It sends a very, very clear message that if they ignore their obligations under our open government laws, they better treat that as a real liability.” He did note he’s not pleased to see the funds leave the county during these down times, but the sense is there will be no impact on local programs.

- Mercury News

Google: Please Talk to Us

Now, by us, I mean the geospatial community, not just Directions Media.

The past day revealed many changes within Google Maps (here’s Google’s statement on the matter, on its LatLong Blog). Bloggers have raised many questions related mostly to the new Google owned data that appears, which includes parcel level data in some areas. There are concerns about quality and up-to-date-ness, about Google claiming copyright on data that is public and the goal of this effort. I’ve seen but one response to the fray from a Googler: Mano Marks in a comment on James Fee’s blog pointed someone to the this page, to learn how he could share his authoritative data.

I look forward to learning more about these changes and the “new” data so we in the community can determine if and how we might take advantage of them. I hope we don’t have to wait too long.