If I’m Not on Google Maps Do I Exist?

The U.S. government may be suing Google for antitrust violations but the rest of us are still pretty dependent on the company for a large part of our day-to-day life. And sometimes Google manages to make our lives just a little bit harder. For a year now, we have been unable to get Google Maps to recognize that our street exists. 

It’s not as if we don’t know where we live. Our little cul-de-sac has four homes and two vacant lots and Google shows a well-known casita (guesthouse) on our corner. But when restaurants, service people, and other locals try to find us, we don’t show up. To complicate matters further, there is a cerrada with the same name and number as our privada elsewhere in town. And of course that one is on Google Maps, so people go the wrong address and ask, “where are you?” We now must send maps, spanish address directions, and WhatsApp location links to give people a fighting chance of finding us. 

The Garmin (its a Taiwanese company) GPS in our car knows exactly where we are, down to the accent mark. But Google is apparently reluctant to add us, despite multiple requests and applications, including photos. To add to our insult,  Google Maps exactly pinpoints a location for a supermarket that hasn’t been built and according to local people doesn’t even have permits yet. 

Google Ergo Sum

[This is a guest post written by my husband Erich Almasy]