Catholic Priest Advises Engaged Couples: Don’t Use Google Maps

You know it’s rough going when even the clergy can’t recommend your service. That’s what’s happening to Google Maps, which is listing a Catholic church/school in Short Hills, NJ, at the wrong location. The church is located at 50 Short Hills Ave., but when you search Google for that address, it instead shows a similar […]

Chat with SearchBot

google-maps-logo-smYou know it’s rough going when even the clergy can’t recommend your service.

That’s what’s happening to Google Maps, which is listing a Catholic church/school in Short Hills, NJ, at the wrong location. The church is located at 50 Short Hills Ave., but when you search Google for that address, it instead shows a similar address — 50 Old Short Hills Rd.

The problem becomes evident before you even conduct your search, when Google Maps recommends the wrong address.

maps-1

It’s also evident when you search Google.com for the name of the church/school, St. Rose of Lima. The map on the right of the screen shows the correct location, but the map below the listing shows the wrong location.

maps-2

The two locations actually aren’t all that far apart, but as Rev. Michael Trainor tells the Star-Ledger newspaper, it’s causing problems when people coming for a wedding or funeral can’t find the church.

“We had a mother-of-the-bride get lost once. We did hold up the ceremony, but we can’t always,” Trainor said. “People do get upset or angry if they miss or are late for the ceremony.”

When Trainor counsels couples who are preparing for their wedding ceremonies, he instructs them on more than the joys and challenges of marriage. He stresses they must tell their guests not to use Google Maps until the problem is corrected.

Google spokesperson Deanna Yick told the paper that Google is aware of the problem and working on a fix.

The Star-Ledger article also mentions a separate-and-recently-corrected Google Maps bug that had people looking for a New Jersey state park ending up in someone’s driveway.


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.


About the author

Matt McGee
Contributor
Matt McGee joined Third Door Media as a writer/reporter/editor in September 2008. He served as Editor-In-Chief from January 2013 until his departure in July 2017. He can be found on Twitter at @MattMcGee.

Get the must-read newsletter for search marketers.