{"id":9727,"date":"2011-12-01T19:51:23","date_gmt":"2011-12-02T00:51:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/?p=9727"},"modified":"2022-05-11T06:19:46","modified_gmt":"2022-05-11T11:19:46","slug":"peering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/peering\/","title":{"rendered":"Peering Behind the Curtain"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I’ve used the Google Maps URL Shortener for a lot of links I’ve included within Twelve Mile Circle. Often these maps are “also rans” that are interesting but not quite enough to embed directly within the page. They fall within the g.co\/maps domain and directory. That’s a little different than the general Google URL Shortener at the goo.gl\/ domain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Behind<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Well, they seem to fall into an interesting pattern. All of the file names are composed of five alphanumeric characters. I haven’t noticed any upper-case letters so this would imply 36^5 = 60,466,176 possibilities. Perhaps Google will include upper-case when those run out in which case there would be 62^5 = 916,132,832 possibilities. After that I suppose they could add a sixth character.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then I wondered if it might be feasible to plug any random five-character string after g.co\/maps and see a map someone else produced. Yes it is, and it felt like I was peering into business that didn’t belong to me even though it was completely accessible to the outside world. It got a little creepy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Let’s consider an example<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

So I began with a comment that Thias placed on my recent article, “No, Not That One<\/a>.” Why Thias? Well, he’s been a long time reader and I like his comments. In this instance he mentioned Strasbourg, Saskatchewan and provided a shortened Google Maps link: http:\/\/g.co\/maps\/wwaqy<\/a>. Go ahead and open that link in another tab. See how it brings you to Strasbourg, Saskatchewan? Right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I used “wwaqy” as my seed value. I went through the possibilities, changing only a single character on that string at a time to see if I could generate additional maps. It was a bit like pushing the button on a slot machine. Most of the time I got a “Page Not Found” error. I’d find a map once every few attempt at some random interval.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My advice: if you use the Google Maps URL Shortener, don’t make your home address one of the endpoints because it’s publicly accessible. However, I don’t know if these shortened designations last forever or whether they’re overwritten at some point. If someone sees this page in the distant future and nothing displays then I guess we’ll know our answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What follows is a selection of maps that I discovered. I created none of these. Thus, you are observing maps produced by other people who are completely unknown to me. They are posted without any editing on my part.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hershey Park, Amish Country Road Trip.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

http:\/\/g.co\/maps\/wwaqw<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n