By Cara Sulieman
INTERNET giants Google have found themselves at a dead loss in Fife after mixing up a crematorium in Dunfermline with one located miles away in Kirkcaldy.
Grief stricken mourners heading there to say their last goodbyes to their loved ones could be left 11 miles off target by relying on directions from the popular online service.
Searches show the crematorium listed as Dunfermline – but located at the actual home of Kirkcaldy Crematorium which also finds itself listed as its online doppelganger.
Now funeral bosses warn the blunder could cause grief wracked families yet more distress in their darkest hour.
“Distress”
Liz Murphy, manager of Kirkcaldy Crematorium, said: “If people are relying on that to bring them to the crematorium for a service then it could cause a lot of distress.”
She added: “We had something similar a while ago where people were directed out to East Wemyss because our postcode was wrong on the Fifedirect website, but I’m not aware of anything being wrong with Google Maps.”
The confusion doesn’t end there after Google Maps also listed Larbert High School as being in the Lang Toun.
The real Larbert High School is actually 30 miles away in Stenhousemuir near Falkirk.
Typing Larbert High School into the search bar of the search engine’s map section pinpoints an address in the Fife town which is actually the site of Kirkcaldy High School.
“Bizarre”
But staff at the high school in Kirkcaldy say they haven’t had any problems with lost visitors yet.
Judith Kerr, depute head of Kirkcaldy High School, said: “You would have thought that they would at least know what town the school is in.
“We haven’t had people turn up at our school looking for the other one though.”
But Anne Buchan, acting rector of Larbert High School, said: “We’ve not had to type it into Google because we know where it is.
“It’s bizarre. We have our school maps but many more people use Google. I use it myself all the time.
“Obviously that could cause confusion.”
“Quality”
But Google refuse to take blame for the error, saying that the information is provided by a third party and insist they welcome help from the public to point out any mistakes.
A spokesman said: “The listing information contained in Google Maps comes from third party data providers.
“We work very hard to make Google Maps as accurate and helpful as possible for our users, whether searching for business listings or exploring their local area.
“We’re constantly working to improve the quality and accuracy of the information available and appreciate our users’ feedback in helping us to do so.”
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