Google invents town in England

BEIJING, November 4 (Xinhuanet) -- The world has become focused on a small village in England called Argleton apparently situated off the A59 near Ormskirk, in Lancashire.

The reason for the sudden interest is that Argleton doesn't exist, except in Google Maps. The phantom village was first spotted by a blogger in 2008 who writes, "I lived there for most of my life but Google wants to wipe it off the face of the planet!"

Mike Nolan, the author of the short post, say he doesn't really believe that is Google's intention, but remains somewhat puzzled to the new town situated a short distance from his native Aughton. It could of course be a simple typing error, but neither Google or the Dutch company TeleAtlas could reveal anything that might give explanation to the anomaly. Google have merely said that "occasional errors" do occur and a Tele Atlas spokesperson said, "I really can't explain why these anomalies get into our database."

The subject has of course been widely discussed on the Internet with Argleton fast becoming a popular hashtag. Some have suggested the'error' is a trap street of sorts. A trap street is a fictitious street included on a map for the purpose of "trapping" potential copyright violators of the map, who will be unable to justify the inclusion of the "trap street" on their map. Of course this "trap town", if indeed it is one, has many news rooms buzzing and the muddy field in which Argleton 'exists' has been swamped with journalists, photographers and television news crews. Trap streets are routinely denied and rarely acknowledged by publishers. Argleton may disappear from Google Maps and with it the mystery of its short existence.