Stay in One Place, Sunrise Self Storage Facilities, and Google Will Find You Eventually

According to the United States Search and Rescue Task Force, the thing to do if you get lost is to stay in one place -- and stay together. Sunrise, Florida, and its more than 86,000 citizens have been doing just that for 50 years, since Sunrise (originally called Sunset) was first established. Yet for almost a month this summer, Google Maps sent viewers who were looking for Sunrise to Sarasota -- a city that is 200 miles away and on the other side of the state -- instead. Not only was the city of Sunrise lost, but so were all its businesses (including many self storage facilities), addresses, and even city hall, much to the mayor’s dismay.

Google has fixed the error now, and if you searched for Sunrise today, you would find it right where it should be -- in eastern Florida, near Fort Lauderdale and Coral Springs -- nowhere near Sarasota. (But you can drive to Sarasota from Sunrise, if you have four hours to spare.) Many self storage companies can now be found in and around Sunrise using Google Maps. One nearby facility, Smart Stop Self Storage, has two Google Maps reviews noting that the facility has not moved. “I have been renting storage space here for about a year,” writes “Laura,” while “I have been storing in this location for almost two years now,” notes “Angel”.

Still, the people of Sunrise are not satisfied. Sunrise’s mayor, Mike Ryan, commented on CNN Tech today that Google has lost Sunrise three times now, and he is fed up. “I don’t have any problem with the idea that mistakes happen,” Ryan told CNN. “The algorithms they have to apply to understand what my search is are undoubtedly complicated. What disturbed us is that this wasn’t the first time it happened .... It felt like a bizarre novel -- that all of a sudden we disappeared. We woke up one morning and we didn’t exist in the ether world.” The mayor mailed a map of Sunrise to Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt, to help solve the problem.

Google has lost cities before. So far, Google Maps has misplaced La Jolla, California; Rogers, Minnesota; Wickliffe, Ohio; Woodstock, Virginia; and Imperial Beach, California. Google emailed CNN to say that it strives to locate lost cities as quickly as possible, on a case by case basis. The company blamed the mistakes on its sources: satellite data, aerial views, street views, and U.S. Census Bureau data, along with some commercial data providers.

According to Search Engine Land, a blog that has been following the lost city problems, cities began to get lost shortly after Google changed data providers.

Local business owners, who normally get much of their business from web referrals, complained that they have been losing money because customers cannot find them. Online marketing efforts typically depend on Google. Local search consultant Mike Blumenthal told The Sun Sentinel earlier in the week that “Google is the primary way that local buyers are finding local businesses...A lot of businesses have no clue where their clients are coming from, and I would venture to guess that a large percentage of them are coming from Google and they don’t know it.”

Sunrise florist Sherry Tannozzina agreed. “My new customer Web orders is almost zero,” she complained. “The revenues are down, the people can’t find us. They can’t find the city mayor, they can’t find the police department, they can’t find a dentist, a plumber, a tire changer.” And for a while, they couldn’t find moving or self storage facilities, either.

Sources used:

City of Sunrise, Florida.

Lilly, Christiana. “Sunrise goes missing from Google Maps searches.” The Sun Sentinel. Sept. 20, 2010.

McGee, Matt. “Sunrise, Florida reemerges from Google Maps’ Bermuda Triangle.” Search Engine Land. Sept. 22, 2010.

Sutter, John. “Google Maps ‘loses’ major Florida city.” CNN Tech. Sept. 22, 2010.

United States Search and Rescue Task Force. “Child Survival Education.”