E-Media Tidbits

maps.google.com This Google Maps satellite image still shows many houses and tarps long since gone in New Orleans.

My old house in New Orleans -- a few steps from the 17th Street Canal, in the neighborhood called Lakeview (which became the lake during Hurricane Katrina) -- has been on a demolition list for probably more than a year. It is (or was?) the last derelict home on the 400 block of 28th Street, where I lived when I worked for United Press International during the 1970s and 80s. (Make sure you have "satellite" selected on the Google Maps interface to see the image, and zoom in until you can see individual houses easily.)

Here's how I know that image is old: Today, all houses on that block are either restored, gutted and awaiting restoration, or demolished. A current image of that block would show many gaping vacant lots. But not so in the Google Maps satellite image! It shows no vacant lots -- and, if you look closely, piles of hurricane debris in front of many of the homes.

This oddity led me to wonder, "When was that satellite image taken?" The answer? Unknown. There's no date shown on these images, which come from Navteq, a provider of mapping and satellite data (acquired this month by Nokia).

Should Navteq provide dates for its photos? And should Google include those dates? Perhaps if the satellite images are compilations -- as many are due to cloud cover and other issues -- the image could be tagged simply with a month and year, rather than a specific date. However, dating these images is essential to determine whether they're recent (and thus more likely accurate) or old (and quite possibly very, very wrong).

So I still don't know whether that great old house has been demolished yet. But I do know my former next-door neighbor Pat's house was knocked down more than a year ago. Yet it's still visible in that photo.

...Fellow Tidbits contributor Maryn McKenna adds: "I have been in and out of New Orleans numerous times since Katrina on some long-term stories. On my last visit I got confused about an address and pulled it up on Google Maps. By accident, my map was set on satellite view. I was astonished to see how many of the roofs were still blue -- that's blue as in tarp. Anyone who's been to New Orleans lately knows that those tarps shred easily in the wind and rain. Therefore, satellite images showing intact-looking blue tarps are definitely old! A few might have been replaced, but not all of them. Here's an example.