It appears that there is still a portion of the western Mississippi Gulf Coast that hasn’t updated to post-katrina (and, no, I still don’t capitalize that word) images on Google Maps. The area where the old blends with the new shows an amazing contrast of just what destruction a hurricane can do.

It seems that there is a big buzz around the blogosphere and internet news sites concerning Google Maps’ return to pre-katrina satellite views for the New Orleans area.

First of all, it could be that I’m just on a renegade Google data center, but I haven’t seen the post-katrina views for over a year now. Big honking deal.

Second, since when did it become Google’s responsibility to provide close-up views of all the devastation that most would rather forget? Go back through this blog and you will see that I’ve had my own criticisms of Google and I’ll surely have more in the future. However, I’ve got Google’s back on this. It’s a free service to you, the viewer. Unless you’re a stockholder, I’m sure Google could care less about your conspiracy theory (whatever that theory may be.) Want/need post-katrina satellite views? Go to the NOAA site. From what I’ve seen, it has better images anyway.

(update – 4/2) Looks like Google has updated again – to post-post-katrina images. Not the flooding images from immediately afterwards, but blue-roof and FEMA trailer shots after the water had receded. Google didn’t give in to the feds before, I have to wonder if they are doing so now.

And I see that the Ray Nagin Memorial Motor Pool is still going strong.

I count at least three different satellite angles in this Google Maps shot of New York City at Times Square. Amazing really, how they could blend all these shots together.