Virtual Roads

June 28, 2004 10:22 PM

I just did a Sherlock search for "Diner" in the 60662 zip code. One of the diners, "The Tasty Burger", had an address of "1000 Virtual Road", and Sherlock couldn't provide a map. I Googled the address, and got this -- tons of business that all have that address, many in different cities. What is this?

&levelTo reinforce the fact that this is not an actual street: this map shows the location of Amits Art School to be, apparently, in the exact center of Chicago, as indicated by the placement of the "Chicago" label. Note also that there is no street called "Virtual" in this map.

posted by tweebiscuit to home & garden (13 comments total)

Probably just a placeholder. Sorta like lorem ipsum.
posted by cmonkey at 10:27 PM on June 28, 2004

Note the states of the addresses in question: Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio. Then there's this document from your Google search, which has the address being used as a test case involving interop between systems from different phone companies -- specifically, a test involving Ameritech, the phone company that used to serve five states: Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio.

So my guess would be that "1000 Virtual Road" was the default dummy address used within Ameritech when testing out their systems, and apparently some of that test data leaked out into the world through the various listings services that show up in your Google search.

The question then is, are the businesses made up as well? That is, is it just one dummy field, or entire dummy records you're seeing here?
posted by jjg at 11:04 PM on June 28, 2004

The question then is, are the businesses made up as well? That is, is it just one dummy field, or entire dummy records you're seeing here?

And maybe even dummy locations: I'm imagining a full size balsa wood diner with unnervingly realistic mannequins for customers...
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 3:55 AM on June 29, 2004

This is all disappointing. I was hoping for elaborate money-laundering schemes, like the pizza place in Yellow Springs called "HaHa Pizza" because back in the day it was owned by drug dealers and it was, ya know, a HAHA! ...pizza place.
posted by Shane at 5:45 AM on June 29, 2004

AskMeFi: full size balsa wood diner with unnervingly realistic mannequins for customers
posted by davidmsc at 5:53 AM on June 29, 2004

Mmm... tasty balsaburgers.
posted by DrJohnEvans at 6:41 AM on June 29, 2004

Uncanny Valley, IL 60662
posted by gimonca at 7:01 AM on June 29, 2004

So that's where the X-Men live...
posted by ChasFile at 7:14 AM on June 29, 2004

Mapmakers often put a fake something on their map so if it's copied, they can go after the copier. Think how easy it would be to copy someone's map, and how tough it would be to call them on it without a little trick like this. My understanding is they put small things on (one Minneapolis map I remember said WIN TWINS in a spot near the Metrodome) so people won't get too confused. But this could be one of those things.
posted by GaelFC at 9:33 AM on June 29, 2004

Okay, I'll bite. "Sherlock search"???
posted by DBAPaul at 10:31 AM on June 29, 2004

It's a Mac thing. Don't ask.
posted by sid at 10:54 AM on June 29, 2004

Too late.
posted by jjg at 11:35 AM on June 29, 2004

Well, it happens in both web and Sherlock-based phone books, so it's clearly a problem with the phone book itself. I tried calling the numbers of these places, and none are connected, so these are definitely not real numbers. They're also obviously fake listings, since who would believe that there's an Eric's Art School, a Fajfar's Art School, and a George's Art School all in Beaver Damn WI?

The problem is that this is generating false listing. There was a brief period of time that I was actually looking for that fictictious Chicago "Tasty Burger", and a lot of other people could be fooled.

Gael, I like your suggestions a lot, but I think there are rather a lot of these listings for that explanation to make sense.
posted by tweebiscuit at 2:03 PM on June 29, 2004