IKEA’s propensity for naming its products after locations in Sweden (among other things) has led to the unintended1 consequence of search results for those products drowning out search results for the lakes and towns they’re named after. Sweden has launched a more-than-tongue-in-cheek tourist campaign to counter that, inviting people to discover the originals. [Strange Maps]
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IKEA sells an all-black globe as part of its LINDRADE series. It costs $20 in the U.S. and £17 in the U.K.; for some reason it’s not available on the Canadian store. If it were, I might just get one.
Per standing IKEA policy, New Zealand is not shown.
The reviews on the U.S. store are hilarious, but on the U.K. store the single a review on the U.K. says that the globe is chalkboard (it’s made of polystyrene), which makes the product a good deal less absurd. Otherwise, it occurs to me that it could make a halfway decent base on which you could paste your own globe gores. [Cartophilia]
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IKEA is apologizing after it was discovered that one of its BJÖRKSTA world map posters left off New Zealand. (Yes, that again.) IKEA says the product will be phased out; it’s still available in my country, for the moment. Note that there are three other world maps in the BJÖRKSTA series (which consists of framed pictures, including art, photos and maps); the other three do include New Zealand.
IKEA had better hope no one finds out about the map art that uses the Mercator projection.
Previously: New Zealand Launches Campaign to Get Itself Back on World Maps; Maps Without New Zealand.
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