The plague of outdated indoor maps.
Working in Higher Education, a problem which arises on a regular basis is how to help people find their way around campus. Advances in technology have helped, with embedded maps on web pages superceding PDFs in most places now. But whilst these systems can help you find the right building, they don't necessarily help you find the right room, or the location of the relevant department, service or individual you are seeking.
Although niche companies arose to meet this demand, when Google rolled out indoor maps, this seemed like the solution everyone had been waiting for. Apple followed with their own version, and Apple's IMDF format for specifying interior layouts of buildings was adopted as an international standard. I remember moving to Manchester and being impressed to find buildings with the internal layouts clearly visible through "standard" map websites.
But now? That wonder has been replaced by disappointment. Buildings with internal layouts are still there, but the information is outdated. A quick look at the Marks & Spencers store in Manchester city centre will reveal an incredible level of detail about which products are stocked where... but the store was refurbished a couple of years ago and the information is now completely out of date and inaccurate.
I think I'd rather have no internal maps than misleading ones.
This highlights the problems with a lot of these new technologies which come along - organisations jump on the band wagon and adopt them, but then their projects go neglected and unloved. It's easy to find outdated and abandoned apps in both Google's and Apple's app stores. I wonder how long until we find abandoned LLM chatbots scattered across the web?
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