Google Maps, Now Featuring… Property Lines?!?

I just noticed that the regular view of my area on Google Maps now shows property lines:

googlemaps-propertylines

Maybe only map nerds like me get excited about the rollout of this kind of feature. Frankly, I’m not even sure what utility it has for a normal Google Maps user. The nearest thing I can think of at the moment is perhaps for increased specificity in giving directions, as in, “It’s the fifth house on the right.” Or something like this…

“Hey guys, when I was looking for a place a little while ago, there was a really nice room at this lovingly restored craftsman house on McCadden…”
gmaps-propertylines-notation

That’s a true story, by the way. Blew your mind, didn’t it? …Yeah, you’re right — not really.

OK, then how about a little vocabulary: googling around to find out if anyone else was taking note of Google Maps’ audacious deployment of property lines, I found a few web forums of other cartographic geeks that were. On one of them, the pedant-in-residence (every web forum has one) imparted that maps showing property lines are properly called cadastral maps.

Cadastral. Did you already know that one? Yeah, me neither. So you’re welcome, dear readers. Surely you’ll have no shortage of opportunities to sprinkle that one into conversation. Go forth and impress the hell out of the sophisticates on the cocktail party circuit, and remember your web-based wingman the next time you’re online.

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