Are Islamic messages embedded in Google maps?

The Post & Email ^ | May 6, 2010 | Jim Campbell

[Natural Born 54]

Some people have discovered Islamic words and phrases encoded inside Google maps. For some strange reason someone has put Islamic words within the zoom of Google maps. Even stranger, some are found in very rural areas of America.

[Natural Born 54]

I am not an expert user of Google Earth (it has poor coverage in my geographic area so I don't use if often). If anyone who is an expert is inclined to investigate the claims made in this article, it would be interesting to get an opinion as to their validity.

[mountainlion]

Gooks probing the wire

[mnehring]

Bfltr

[gunsequalfreedom]

Very graphically challenged website. Can’t see what they are talking about on the map and they don’t offer a click to enlarge option so it can seen.

[doodad]

Steganography.

[Natural Born 54]

http://americaspeaksink.com/2010/05/muslim-messages-masked-in-google-maps/#more-7212

There’s a better screen shot at the above link - that web site is the origin of the subject of the article.

[GOPJ]

If anyone who is an expert is inclined to investigate the claims made in this article, it would be interesting to get an opinion as to their validity.

Is this even possible?

[Natural Born 54]

"Steganography is the art and science of writing hidden messages in such a way that no one, apart from the sender and intended recipient, suspects the existence of the message, a form of security through obscurity. The word steganography is of Greek origin and means "concealed writing" from the Greek words steganos (στεγανός) meaning "covered or protected", and graphein (γράφειν) meaning "to write". The first recorded use of the term was in 1499 by Johannes Trithemius in his Steganographia, a treatise on cryptography and steganography disguised as a book on magic. Generally, messages will appear to be something else: images, articles, shopping lists, or some other covertext and, classically, the hidden message may be in invisible ink between the visible lines of a private letter.

The advantage of steganography, over cryptography alone, is that messages do not attract attention to themselves. Plainly visible encrypted messages—no matter how unbreakable—will arouse suspicion, and may in themselves be incriminating in countries where encryption is illegal.[1] Therefore, whereas cryptography protects the contents of a message, steganography can be said to protect both messages and communicating parties.

Steganography includes the concealment of information within computer files. In digital steganography, electronic communications may include steganographic coding inside of a transport layer, such as a document file, image file, program or protocol. Media files are ideal for steganographic transmission because of their large size. As a simple example, a sender might start with an innocuous image file and adjust the color of every 100th pixel to correspond to a letter in the alphabet, a change so subtle that someone not specifically looking for it is unlikely to notice it."

Yes, perfect word.

[dmz]

Given that the article provides exactly zero information on where to find the information (really, how hard would it have been to provide a link to the map at the appropriate zoom?), I am going to step out on a limb and call BS.

I will happily come back on the thread and mea culpa to hell and back if this is actually true.

[KarlInOhio]

In the comments secion, "Gee" says that the Arabic words are translations of geographic locations near the text, so they aren't some secret message. If Arabic is first on the list of languages the map can be (automatically?) translated in, some programmer may have just gotten lazy by setting the default language to the first on the list and then forgot to look up the real language to use.

[atomicweeder]

I’ve definitely seen them.

[ThomasThomas]

Anybody can add points of interest or photos to Google maps.

[John Jorsett]

If the author of that page had wanted to, he could have embedded the very map he was talking about, including zoom controls. If he can’t be bothered, neither can I.

[bgill]

Anybody can add points of interest or photos to Google maps.

But you know when someone has added these because they are in a different font, color, and/or is designated with a symbol.

[ShadowAce]

[Natural Born 54]

The screen shot that is in the posted article shows an area of the U.S. - I see “Staten Island” in the upper left quadrant. Using Google Earth, if I knew how to use it well enough, I would try to get to that area and duplicate the area in the screen shot. In other words, try to use the zoom feature until it matches the zoom distance from the map that was used in the screen shot. I would just keep zooming in and watch for the messages to see if they appear.

There’s a little bit more information at the other link I posted in #6 and the screen shot is easier to see - closer to areas within the same area, I believe.

[KarlInOhio]

That's one problem with posting an article about another article. The original at http://americaspeaksink.com/2010/05/muslim-messages-masked-in-google-maps/ has the locations.

thx for expanding map around center pic, it says Hebron.

Here are the others all again, in case anyone wants to visit:

Top left picture, says New Dorp: “ريتشموند”/ Richmond NY@ lat=40.5739937, lon=-74.1304203

Middle left picture, says 304: “سالم”/ Salem TX @ lat=29.8430036, lon=-97.3277693

Bottom left picture, says Nooseneck: “أوستين”/ Austin RI @ lat=41.5906556, lon=-71.6550653

No top middle picture:

Center Picture, says N. Greensburg Rd.: “الخليل”/Hebron @ lat=31.2335085, lon=-90.6778794

Bottom middle picture, says Wingate Rd.: “كولومبيا”/ Columbia FL @ lat=30.0738438, lon=-82.6956787

Top right picture, says Coingtee Lake: “ريتشموند”/ Richmond SC @ lat=33.0754486, lon=-79.8786918

Middle right picture, says Huger: same as top right, “ريتشموند”/ Richmond SC @ lat=33.0754486, lon=-79.8786918 just at a different scale

Bottom right picture, says Farm to Market 2504: “انكوراج”/ Anchorage TX @ lat=29.0674669, lon=-98.7058558

I tried to go to those locations and only saw English.

You can copy and paste the Arabic text into Google translator and see how it translates. For example انكوراج translates as "Anchorage". I don't know if it is the Arabic word for an anchorage, or a sound by sound transliteration of Anchorage.

[KarlInOhio]

I went to maps.google.com and entered "40.5739937, -74.1304203" (no quotes) into the search box and got the map without Arabic on it. But I typed "40.5739937, -74.1304203 (location)" (also no quotes but the word location has to be in parentheses) and the map showed up again but zoomed out one level with the Arabic text on it. Zoom in one step and the Arabic disappears. Weird.

[dmz]

The problem is with the original article, not the posting of an article about an article.

The author of the original article could very easily have linked us all to the pages he speaks of. That he did not leads me to suspect that it ever happened at all.

As you say, you went to the spots mentioned and found nothing.

[scottfactor]

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&q=N+Greensburg+Rd,+4,+Amite,+Mississippi&sll=31.503629,-89.274902&sspn=13.598242,19.753418&ie=UTF8&cd=1&geocode=FdE93QEd0gSZ-g&split=0&safe=on&hq=&hnear=N+Greensburg+Rd,+4,+Amite,+Mississippi&ll=31.233096,-90.67759&spn=0.026678,0.038581&z=15

Paste this link into your browser. It will bring up N Greensburg Rd, 4, Amite, Mississippi

There you will see it.