Google Under Fire for Flawed Korea Maps

Controversy has flared up as Google Earth, a satellite-image mapping service by Google, the world's largest search engine, has erroneously described several South Korean locations.

The controversial areas include Ongjin County under the jurisdiction of the city of Incheon, and some islands in Ongjin County such as Baegryeong-do, Daecheong-do, and Socheong-do.

While close to North Korea, all of these locations are in South Korea. Yet all of them are described in detail by Google Earth as belonging to North Korea. Even Yeonpyeong-do, in whose adjacent waters the 1999 West Sea battle was waged, is described as belonging to the North.

This is not the first time Google has mislabeled Korean geography. Google once incurred public protest by referring to the East Sea as the "Sea of Japan" and the Dokdo Islets as "Takeshima."

In September last year, Google Earth caused a stir with a notice that referred to Seoul as "Korea under Japanese rule." According to a study in June last year, Google Earth had a total of 133 erroneous designations for Korean geographical locations.

Google Earth currently refers to the Dokdo Islets as "Liancourt Rocks" with a note that South Korea calls them "Dokdo" but Japan calls them "Takeshima."

A Google official said it would take some time to update the maps, as the company needs the South Korean government's permission to send a Korean map produced by the South Korean government itself to Google's main office.

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AdBrite Ranked Among Top Four Ad Networks By comScore

Fourth-Largest in US Page-Views, after Yahoo!, Google, AOL's Advertising.com

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- AdBrite is the fourth-largest ad network in the US, ranked by page-views, according to comScore's December 2007 MediaMetrix report.

comScore reported that the AdBrite network had over 25 billion page-views in December 2007. Only Yahoo! Network, Google Network, and AOL's Advertising.com had more U.S. page-views. The AdBrite network reached 79 million unique users during the month.

    Advertising Networks        Pages Viewed (MM)

     1) Yahoo! Network          282,320

     2) Google Ad Network       221,476

     3) Advertising.com         58,343

     4) AdBrite                 25,446

     5) ValueClick Networks     23,111

     6) Traffic Marketplace     10,770

     7) Tribal Fusion           10,159

     8) 24/7 Real Media         9,749

     9) Specific Media          8,804

    10) Casale Media Network    7,329

   Source: comScore MediaMetrix, December 2007

"AdBrite's scale is a testament to the rapid growth and efficiency of our transparent marketplace," said Ignacio Fanlo, CEO of AdBrite.

AdBrite brings together a diverse base of high-quality publishers in a dynamic marketplace that supports multiple ad types including text ads, banner ads, and AdBrite's proprietary Full Page Ad, BritePic, and InVideo advertising formats. Advertisers can reach a highly engaged audience, with fully transparent reporting on results, and the ability to buy and optimize campaigns on a site-level basis.

"Quality publishers -- from major Internet brands to engaging specialty sites -- are joining the AdBrite marketplace every day," said Fanlo. "AdBrite is the network of choice for savvy marketers who want to reach engaged consumers at massive scale."

About AdBrite:

AdBrite is the Internet's Ad Marketplace. The company makes it easy to buy and sell advertising online, giving advertisers and publishers more transparency and control than any other ad network. With banner and text ads, as well as innovative formats like BritePic, InVideo and Full Page Ad, AdBrite has created a simple and more effective advertising marketplace for advertisers and publishers of all sizes. AdBrite serve ads on over one billion pages a day.

AdBrite was founded by Philip Kaplan and Gidon Wise in 2002 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. AdBrite is backed by venture capital firms Sequoia Capital, DAG Ventures, and Mitsui Ventures. For more information, visit http://www.adbrite.com.

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