Irish Politician Calls Apple’s New Maps “Dangerously Misleading” After Farm Is Labeled An Airport

The new iOS 6 Maps is out and users are starting to get their feet wet with the app. The reviews are not all that stellar.

In fact, Ireland’s Minister for Justice, Alan Shatter, said Apple’s new maps app in iOS 6 is “dangerously misleading.” iOS 6 labels Airfield Garden as an airport! Minister Alan Shatter was pretty upset and issued a statement:

I am surprised to discover that Airfield, which is in the centre of my constituency in Dundrum, has, in Apple’s new operating system iOS 6 maps application, been designated with the image of an aircraft.

Airfield, a 35 acre estate with working farm, formal gardens and café is of course a famous and immensely popular, important local amenity.

Here is a picture from Sociable.co:

I should note, at the time I am writing this, it appears Apple has removed the airplane symbol from the map.

This is not the only issue with mislabeling locations in Apple Maps. Gizmodo lists 17 other ones and there are more to be found in time. You can see also some side by side comparisons over here.

Google has years on Apple when it comes to maps. Google has had their fair share of issues over the years.

About The Author

Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here.