ABSTRACT

This chapter considers how searching on Google Maps is becoming an informal proxy for in-person experiences of World Heritage sites through a digital ethnography of one particular place: Hospicio Cabanas. Hospicio Cabanas is probably one of the lesser-known World Heritage sites of Mexico. Google Maps offers several types of maps and virtual experiences. The potential of Google Map’s two-dimensional and three-dimensional satellite maps provides large-scale views that enable contextual understandings of places, such as Hospicio Cabanas. Finding and exploring Hospicio Cabanas on Google’s satellite map emphasises the scale of the hospice in comparison to surrounding buildings and streets. Google Maps also gives access to virtual experiences through Street View and See Inside. Google has mapped much of the urbanised world using panoramic photographs. The dynamic interface of Street View allows for a simulated physical exploration of the streets surrounding Hospicio Cabanas.