Originally Posted by
StormyKnight
GE (Google Earth) doesn't have 100% coverage of the earth, most notably small islands offshore. In Google maps, it is drawn, but only sea is seen in the sat view.
Its not a conspiracy....
I concur with that comment and can support it with my own personal experience. On more than one occasion I have tried to locate a small island (typically in the South Pacific) in order to land on it using a Twin Otter, and the island - though very much present on the surface of the earth - has not been depicted in the Google Earth satellite view.
My guess is that Google Earth has an automated routine that filters out small visual anomalies in the sea surface such as sunlight reflections, oil slicks, stuff like that, and many small islands get caught up in that filtering process.