Louisville, Kentucky: The City Without A Name (In Google Maps)

Here’s another Google Maps oddity, tipped to us by “emallaich” earlier this week: Louisville doesn’t appear in Google Maps. The city is there — Louisville, Kentucky — but you won’t see the name “Louisville” used anywhere to identify the city. Start with a search on Google.com for louisville kentucky: That’s where Louisville is, so it’s […]

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Here’s another Google Maps oddity, tipped to us by “emallaich” earlier this week: Louisville doesn’t appear in Google Maps. The city is there — Louisville, Kentucky — but you won’t see the name “Louisville” used anywhere to identify the city.

Start with a search on Google.com for louisville kentucky:

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That’s where Louisville is, so it’s not that Google can’t find the city. It’s just that the map doesn’t say “Louisville.” Anywhere. All Google’s map shows is smaller cities like Jeffersontown and St. Matthews.

Even if you click the link into Google Maps, you still won’t see the city’s name at any zoom level — normal, near, or wide.

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A Google spokesperson says data like this comes from a combination of public sources, user contributions and imagery references.

Strange, isn’t it? Clearly, something’s missing in Google’s cookbook of data for the city name to never show up. It’s obviously not as serious as the Sunrise, Florida, problem from earlier in the week. But, if anyone in Louisville is feeling slighted, you can use the “Report A Problem” link at the bottom of the map to report it. (Well, actually, we kinda already did.) And lest the comments below become a bug reporting thread for other Google Maps oddities and problems, let me point you to the Google LatLong blog, where a post earlier this week detailed how to report issues in Google Maps.


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.

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