Google Underwater Mail Delivery in New York's Financial District?

New Google search feature highlights errors in Google map data

Barry Schwartz over at searchengineland.com alerted us to the fact that Google has added ZIP Code matches and lookups to the knowledge graph section of the search results.

If you search for new york, ny zip codes in Google, you will be presented with all of the ZIP Codes in that location. If you click on a ZIP Code, Google outlines the area of the ZIP Code within the map on the right side of the page.

This seemed like an interesting new feature so we at Maptitude decided to quickly explore a few of these ZIP Codes. We immediately found some odd results in New York, highlighting imperfections in Google's data. For example, in the Financial District the ZIP Code "10005" is in two separate pieces, with the second and largest piece of the ZIP Code covering water in Upper New York Bay. When compared with the same ZIP Code in the Maptitude mapping software the difference is striking, with "10005" being landlocked, rather than being mostly water in the Google data. The ZIP Code is outlined in purple in these two maps:

ZIP Code 10005 in Google incorrectly extending into the East River (Left) and the correct boundary of the ZIP Code from Maptitude (Right)

What could have caused such an egregious error by Google, you ask? Well, the answer is not as straightforward as one might imagine and touches on important characteristics of ZIP Code areas that most people, including marketers, overlook or don't understand. Such misunderstandings can impact comparisons of marketing data or sales territory definitions for franchises.

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Caliper Corporation strives to create the best possible ZIP Code boundaries available. You can be confident in their accuracy and in the business decisions you make when using them. Maptitude includes current and projected demographics, and maps for 5-Digit and 3-Digit ZIP Code boundaries plus the 5-Digit ZIP Code points.

Featured Maptitude Map: States with the Most Biotech R&D Companies (USA)

This map, made with Maptitude 2014, highlights regional variations in the number of organizations in the biotechnology research and development sector. States with more organizations are shown in dark red and states with fewer are shown in pale red.

Biotechnology harnesses natural organisms to make useful products. For thousands of years humans have used biological processes to make useful products such as bread and fermented alcoholic beverages. Examples of modern biotechnology applications include environmental cleanup, and products to streamline manufacturing processes.

The map makes it clear that two states dominate biotech in the USA: California and Massachusetts. San Francisco and Boston vie for the most biotech investment dollars, and three of the top five cities for biotech investment capital are in the Golden State.

Contact Caliper to access extensive map and business data. Caliper can provide data such as the biotech counts used here, as well as business counts, by size, for hundreds of industries by ZIP Code. When used with the Maptitude 2014 USA Country Package you can create the maps that tell the story your spreadsheets can't (more...).

Tech Tip: How Do I Create A Custom Cropped Map?

Masking is a technique that makes the area you want to highlight on your map stand out. This helps your map readers focus on the area that's important on the map. With masking, you can partially or completely hide the surrounding background.

While the Mask tool allows you to see one or more states, counties, ZIP Codes, or any other region, you may want to create a custom area of interest. By using the Click Buffer tool with the Mask tool you can create a map that shows only the information that is important to your message.

Tricks & Tips: Hover Over Field Names for More Information

Maptitude includes thousands of demographic variables including income, buying power, population, age and household characteristics, number of businesses by type, and commuting classifications.

To view more information for each of the supplied fields in the dataview for any map layer (accessed by right clicking on a layer in the Display Manager and choosing New Dataview) simply hover the mouse cursor over the field name to see the full field information, including unabbreviated description, vintage, and source.