Google Maps' Phantom Ocean Businesses

The Strange Case of Businesses Floating at Sea

We rely on digital maps every day, trusting them to guide us to the nearest coffee shop or navigate a cross-country road trip. But beneath the surface of these meticulously plotted landscapes lie strange anomalies and digital ghosts—if you know where to look.

That's exactly what one aspiring data analyst, Joseph, discovered during a project that was supposed to be a straightforward part of his job hunt. While scraping Google Maps for business data to build his portfolio, he stumbled upon something that didn't make any sense.

An Anomaly on the High Seas

As part of any good data project, Joseph began performing Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) on the information he had collected. This is the crucial step where analysts sift through their data, looking for patterns, errors, and outliers. He expected to find typos or miscategorized businesses. What he found instead were businesses located not in bustling city centers or quiet suburban streets, but in the middle of the ocean.

At first, he might have dismissed it as a simple glitch. But as he dug deeper, the "glitches" kept piling up. It wasn't just one or two misplaced pins. A surprising pattern emerged.

The 3% Discovery

After a thorough investigation, Joseph came to a startling conclusion: according to the data he had scraped, almost 3% of businesses were located on the sea. These weren't cruise ships or port-side services, but businesses with coordinates that placed them squarely in open water, far from any landmass.

So, what are these phantom ocean businesses? The reality is likely a mix of explanations:

• Data Errors: Simple GPS coordinate typos or errors in how the data is logged and processed by Google.
• Mobile Businesses: Charter boats, fishing tours, or floating restaurants that are registered with a business address but operate on the water.
• Data Scraping Artifacts: The process of scraping itself can sometimes introduce errors or misinterpret data points.
• Intentional Misdirection: Businesses that may intentionally obscure their physical location for various reasons.

A Lesson in Digital Curiosity

Joseph's accidental discovery is more than just a fun piece of internet trivia. It’s a powerful reminder that the vast datasets that run our modern world are not always as clean or straightforward as they appear. It highlights the critical importance of curiosity and thorough analysis. Without taking the time to question the outliers, he would have missed this fascinating story hidden within the rows and columns of his spreadsheet.

It shows that even in a routine task like preparing for a job hunt, a sharp eye and an inquisitive mind can turn a simple dataset into a tale of discovery, revealing the quirky, unexpected, and utterly human-made imperfections of our digital world.