Flood? What Flood? New Orleans never flooded...

Google is being chided by the government for replacing satillite images of flooded New Orleans with older pre-Katrina pictures.

"Google's use of old imagery appears to be doing the victims of Hurricane Katrina a great injustice by airbrushing history," said subcommittee chairman Brad Miller, D-North Carolina.

Google says that the swtich to pre-Katrina photos was to "improve detail" of the maps of the city. But it doesn't seem like Google has changed the maps for New Orleans on its Google Earth product yet.

Sad fact that we probably rely on and trust Google too much.

Edith Holleman, staff counsel for the House subcommittee, said it would be useful to understand how Google acquires and manages its imagery because "people see Google and other Internet engines and it's almost like the official word."

Links:

CNN - House panel: Why did Google 'airbrush history?'

New Orleans on Google Maps as if Hurricane Katrina never happened