Google insults the people of Indonesia with their sub-par maps.

This is Google Maps’ view of East Java. It’s an improvement on not too long ago, when the dot for Malang was bigger than the dot for Surabaya - now they’ve gotten onto equal terms, so moving in the right direction.

But the spelling hasn’t improved yet, - there are old Dutch forms, and some odd ones, like:

• Madium for Madiun
• Badad (is that in Iraq?) for Babat
• Parican for Paciran

Ngunut I’d never heard of until seeing this map, but it well may be deserving of a featured spot on the map down there in Tulungagung, especially considering it is apparently well known as a centre for the making of the khaki trousers that Indonesia’s finest stride about in.

Then there are omissions - Sidoarjo must be (in)famous enough, and certainly big enough, for its own dot at this zoom, red or white, without having to zoom. But after zooming it seems Sidoarjo is no bigger than the dusty little hellhole of Kriam (Krian).

So if the Americans ever decide to go the whole hog in bankrupting themselves and getting in hock to the Saudis, Japanese, and Chinese, forever, and invade Indonesia, they’ll need to have better maps than a $100+ billion market-cap company can manage.

You can click and drag on the map to move it around, and play with the zoom feature. No doubt there are peculiarities whichever direction you go.

Tags: East Java, Google, Java, Madiun, Malang, Map, Maps, Purwodadi, Sidoarjo, Surabaya, Tulungagung