Memory lanes: Google’s map of our lives

Google’s Street View helps us navigate the world, but it’s also a portal on forgotten places and secret moments

I am leaning against a wall outside my secondary school in my home town of Canterbury, waiting for my mother to pick me up. She is late, as usual. I rest my head on the stone wall, which is obsidian smooth with the occasional sharp edge. I can feel a flinty knuckle of rock pressing into the base of my skull. I shift uncomfortably in my non-regulation high heels and watch the other parents come and go. I am irritated and worried I won’t have enough time to finish my GCSE coursework that evening. And then she arrives, and I slam the car door shut with more force than is needed.

Only I am no longer a sullen teenager and I am not in Canterbury. I am on my sofa in south London, walking the streets of my former home town on Google Street View. I drag and drop Pegman, the Street View icon, outside my old school. He flails for a moment before freefalling feet-first, and then I am a teenager, walking the passageways of my youth. I can feel the cold stones under my hand as I trace my palm along the wall. I spent so many afternoons waiting for my mother in this spot that it feels as if there is an imprint of me forever leaning there, a ghostlike presence for today’s students to bustle past.

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OpenStreetMap looks to relocate to EU due to Brexit limitations

Open-source UK tech company cites copyright issues, rising costs and prospect of more influence in EU

OpenStreetMap, the Wikipedia-for-maps organisation that seeks to create a free and open-source map of the globe, is considering relocating to the EU, almost 20 years after it was founded in the UK by the British entrepreneur Steve Coast.

OpenStreetMap Foundation, which was formally registered in 2006, two years after the project began, is a limited company registered in England and Wales. Following Brexit, the organisation says the lack of agreement between the UK and EU could render its continued operation in Britain untenable.

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Google Maps gets worldwide visual overhaul

Updated version promises ‘more vibrant’ representation of natural features and built environment

Google Maps is getting a visual overhaul worldwide, finally letting users distinguish forest from floodplain, and desert from snowfield, at a glance.

Alongside the changes to natural environments, a new set of maps will be rolling out in major cities, beginning with London, New York City and San Francisco, aiming to more accurately represent the built-up environment to help pedestrians and cyclists navigate.

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Maps show UK pavements not wide enough for social distancing – in pictures

Spatial analysis by Esri UK has found that most pavements around the country are less than 3 metres wide, making it difficult for pedestrians to remain 2 metres apart and follow government guidelines for social distancing. Using measurements from Ordnance Survey, Esri UK has created a map of all pavement widths, discovering that only 30% of Great Britain’s pavements are at least 3 metres wide, 36% are between 2 and 3 metres and 34% are less than 2 metres wide

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‘Ultimate gift to future generations’: plan to laser map all land on Earth

Project to record cultural, geological and environmental treasures at risk from climate crisis

A project to produce detailed maps of all the land on Earth through laser scanning has been revealed by researchers who say action is needed now to preserve a record of the world’s cultural, environmental and geological treasures.

Prof Chris Fisher, an archaeologist from Colorado State University, said he founded the Earth Archive as a response to the climate crisis.

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