A while back, while reviewing bank branch locations, we thought we found a “trap street”. Well, as it turns out, it is most likely we didn’t.

So how come the same street has different names on Google Maps and on Bank-Anywhere.com which is powered by Google Maps?

A recent investigation into why Google Maps seemingly “dropped Martin Luther King Way” in Seattle found out that while Google Maps (Yahoo Maps and MapQuest) use NAVTEQ data for mapping – the Google Maps API uses data provided by TeleAtlas.

While the data is in most cases the same, it turns out that sometimes it is not.

Which brings up a more interesting question - why?

According to wired the two companies work in two very different ways to come up with the data for their maps:

Maps have long been created by people driving around and marking their trails, as if working a giant Etch A Sketch. Navteq, the biggest road-map maker, still does it that way. But Tele Atlas, which until recently competed with Chicago-based Navteq the way that Burger King competes with McDonald’s – making much the same things in much the same way – has decided to plot the world by starting with the electronic news alert instead of the steering wheel.

So one company gets out there (NAVTEQ) and one sits in front of the computer (TeleAtlas). The one that “got out there” got the name of the street in Seattle right.

Anyone from Palo Alto cares to drive down to Dinahs Ct. to see what’s the deal down there?

At approximately 9:41 am on September 27, 2006, Palo Alto Police Officers received a call of a bank robbery in progress at the Union Bank at 4291 El Camino Real in Palo Alto.

According to reports the officers searched the surrounding areas and neighborhoods with the suspect’s description but were unable to locate the suspect.

Looking for 4291 El Camino Real, Palo Alto on Google Maps shows that the street just northwest of the bank is called Dinahs Ct. One would assume the police searched Dinahs Ct.

But did they?

The street has the same name on both Yahoo Maps and MapQuest. But not at Bank-Anywhere.com which is powered by the Google Maps API.

On Bank-Anywhere.com, the street just north west of the Union Bank at 4291 El Camino Real in Palo Alto is called Tamarack Ct. The same is true for other maps applications powered by Google Maps API.

Why would all popular mapping services name a street in one way while the Google API names it in another?

It could be that NAVTEQ provides Google (and the other mapping services) with more than one version of the map digital database. The Google Maps API database may be older or newer and thus have outdated or updated street names.

But, it could also be a “Trap Street“, that is a fictitious street included on a map for the purpose of “trapping” potential copyright violators.

So, if this is the case - the police should search both Dinahs Ct. and Tamarack Ct. - maybe the suspect fell into the “trap” and will be easy to apprehend… ;-)