Member-only story
How Google Earth Mapped 98% of the World
And how it overcame device constraints to bring it to you
Saroo Brierley was five years old when he was separated from his parents. He and his older brother, Guddu, took a train from their home to a city 70 km south. Saroo fell asleep on a bench at the station and when he woke up, his brother was gone.
The five-year-old boarded another train thinking his brother was on it. But at the end of the journey, he found himself in entirely new and unfamiliar territory. Saroo was one among the million daily passengers who pass through the largest railway complex in India, Howrah Station in the city of Kolkata, some 1,500 km from his home. After spending many homeless days in the train station, he eventually found himself in a government center for abandoned children. From there, the Brierley family from Australia eventually adopted him. Saroo spent the rest of his life in Australia, 10,000 kilometers away from home. But the quest to find his birth family never waned.
Saroo spent many hours on Google Earth tracking down his hometown. Not remembering the name, he instead relied on other hints. He drew a circle on the map to narrow his search and then looked for vague details he remembered: a station name starting with the letter B, a water tower, an overpass, and a ring road nearby.
