Web Site Maps South Carolina Sex Offenders

State Is 35th Added To Site
POSTED: 2:43 pm EDT August 3, 2005
UPDATED: 4:43 pm EDT August 3, 2005

COLUMBIA -- A Utah Internet firm has created a map showing where South Carolina sex offenders live.

The site, http://www.mapsexoffenders.com/,uses maps provided by the search engine Google.
Sex offenders' homes are shown with red marks, and their names, addresses and sometimes even pictures can be seen with a click of the mouse.
Users can either enter their addresses or scroll and zoom through the maps with their mouse.
The site was created by Orbizon Incorporated, an Internet development company based in Orem, Utah.
South Carolina is the 35th state mapped this way, according to Orbizon.
In light testing, the site initially had some issues. Clicking on the red mark for Guy Austin Smith in the Judson community brought up a New Mexico report on a Richard Smith instead. Other names, when clicked, returned failed attempts to access the New Mexico sex offender registry.
But by 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, company officials called TheCarolinaChannel.com to say that the links had been fixed. After further light testing, the site now takes viewers to the State Law Enforcement Division Web site, where each record can be searched.
Some patience is also needed, as the site initially showed no sex offenders in Easley, but gradually, over the course of 20 seconds, filled in with red marks. Company officials said the slowness was due to the popularity of the site.
Viewers also need to make sure that they've zoomed into the map far enough for the red marks to appear. A helpful sentence above the map will tell you how far in you must zoom to see the red marks.
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