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January 24, 2007
Google Earth Data Error Compendium
One of the Google Earth Community members called 'PriceCollins', has spent many hours carefully compiling, organizing, collecting, and explaining data errors in Google Earth. These errors are comprised of anything from image placement errors, photo blemishes, alignment errors, flashes (due to reflection of the sun), and even image processing errors (like the tiny bug in one photo - which is now gone, but you can see the screenshot here). PriceCollins has made a concerted effort to make Google aware of these errors and get them to fix as many as possible. He has organized his information in a thread of posts and created a comprehensive data error compendium 
of nested network links to let you peruse all the errors organized by type and location.
The thread of posts includes a table of contents to help you understand the different types of errors. For example, look at "Camera Artifacts", or some may find the one on "Censorship" of particular interest. There are also errors from the data layers as well (such as misplaced water bodies).
Some "errors" are debatable. For example, "Contrails" from jets may be an error from the perspective of someone wanting to look at the data below the contrail. But, those of us who like finding airplanes in flight find the contrails a handy way to find them. :-)
You should note that Google buys (or is given) their data from dozens of providers and the amount of data is huge. I'm sure with this much data (and new data every few weeks), that it is virtually impossible to remove all "errors". In fact, I think some of the errors make for fun discovery and sightseeing in themselves. But, it is a good idea to make Google aware of the errors so they can improve the experience for everyone. I've heard Google is actively working with PriceCollins to improve their data error handling processes. Way to go PriceCollins!
Posted by FrankTaylor at January 24, 2007 01:28 PM
Comments
Posted by: Trisha Parks at January 25, 2007 02:18 AM
awesome guy... so much errors.... google should hire him...
Posted by: smokeonit at January 25, 2007 06:35 AM
I wonder would they condsider clouds covering areas of land errors ???
Posted by: matthew at January 28, 2007 05:40 AM
Well, I guess google guys are smart enough to accept whatever errors there might be and eventually fix it.
Posted by: nicole cruz at February 5, 2007 08:07 PM
How does one report an error in the names of roads or streets on Google Earth?
Posted by: Encourager at May 3, 2007 11:04 PM
To whom?
I notice that a road in Leeds UK is called Bramley Ring Road when it should be Shadwell and then Seacroft Ring road.
I suppose i should have checked to see what bramley is called. no time
Posted by: Peter at February 1, 2008 01:26 PM
I live in the city of Glennville, GA. There is a road on Google Earth labeled as Ella Grove Rd. That was the road's name six or seven years ago. The correct name is Walter L. Dasher Road. Also, there's a small circle that is located on Walter L. Dasher Rd. The road is labeled Derrick Rd. The correct name is Tom Banks Circle. Also, just past Tom Banks Circle is a road labeled East Simon Street. The name is East Simon St. only inside of the city limits. The correct name of the section between the city limits and Walter L. Dasher Rd. is W. F. Durrence Road. If you have anything you want to ask me etc., just e-mail me at the address I entered. Thank you.
Posted by: Dylan Mulligan at March 2, 2008 04:40 PM
Laurieston, Glasgow is shown as a place of interest at 54-57"33.63N 4-03"10.92W This is incorrect. This is near a village called Laurieston which is correct.
Thanks
Posted by: Paul Swift at April 4, 2008 05:08 AM
My Driveway is Labeled Palova Road; Should be Cook's Drive. I found this error years ago in Streets USA 4.0 mapping software I notified them and it was corrected in the next version 5.0 then in streets version 7.0 they didn't label some smaller Roads.Starts at 46.232436 N.Lat. 108.758830 W Long.
Posted by: Ron Cook at April 21, 2008 03:31 PM
In Jamaica West Indies, the parish area should be labelled Kingston-St. Andrew not
Kingston-St. John.
Posted by: Marj at April 27, 2008 04:56 PM
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I'm sure google will fix this and may even make this better..