Who really controls the map? Inside Google’s grip on Lowcountry navigation

CHARLESTON — In a long-past era of folded paper maps and printed turn-by-turn directions, Google Maps has become the undisputed king of smartphone navigation.

But as the Lowcountry continues to grow — as new neighborhoods are developed, old roads renamed, landmarks reinvented — it raises a fundamental question: How is Google keeping up? And what happens when users submit new information, even nicknames for locations that aren’t vetted?

Recently, Lowcountry residents took to social media after a upper peninsula pedestrian span on Petty Street, long known informally as the “Bridge to Nowhere” — a relic from a failed development — suddenly appeared in Google Maps under a new name, “Graffiti Bridge.”

After that notable change, the landmark has completely disappeared on Google Maps.

For now.

Both names were almost certainly user-submitted, as the city of Charleston says it has zero involvement with what appears in the…