Exploring Google Maps to Find Sesame Street

Children's educational television shows make everyone a bit nostalgic, regardless of when one grew up or which particular show was their favorite (I'll always be a bit partial to Ringo Starr and George Carlin as the conductor on Shining Time Station). But with the characters of these shows becoming more fully integrated with the brands they represent, a seemingly endless number of opportunities are available to promote one show over another.

New School v. Old School, Dora v. Oscar

Using the traditional Floatingsheep method of comparing Google Maps references to a number of keywords in order to highlight where one keyword is prevalent over many others, we've mapped references to Sesame Street classic Oscar the Grouch and 21st century bilingual girl-wonder, Dora the Explorer.

The homogeneity of references can only mean one thing: because of her connection to a younger, presumably more hip and technologically adept fan base, Dora has cornered the virtual market of Google Maps. Alternatively, we could chalk this up to the lingering ambiguity of where exactly Sesame Street is.

Regardless of this, Oscar is likely in a trash can somewhere complaining about the biases of our method and how maps don't really represent reality.