Argleton - Britain's First Virtual Town?
The so called "phantom settlement" of Argleton was first seen on Google Earth and Google Maps in late 2008 despite never existing in reality. According to Google Argleton was located in the parish of Aughton, Lancashire on a site where visitors would only see empty fields.
Because Google information is used by numerous online services Argleton was treated as a real settlement by many organisations and could be found listed by estate agency, employment and even weather websites.
Here at Jotty.co.uk we're not aware of any confirmation or explanation having been given by Google for Argleton's appearance. If the town's inclusion was anything other than accidental then the most credible explanation for inventing Argleton may be to act as a copyright infringement trap. Companies and websites displaying copyrighted data about Argleton would presumably find it difficult to explain to Google's lawyers if they suspected wholesale data theft.
The town of Argleton is no longer found on Google Maps or Google Earth but the virtual town still exists in the form of registered internet domain names and websites.
13.03.2011. 00:51
