I need to know how accurate coordinates obtained from Google Maps/Earth are. Are they 'quasi absolutely' (I know there is no absolut location determination)?
In other words, if I record the coordinates of a field object (e.g. a small tree or shrub in a meadow) using a two-frequency geodetic GPS receiver and I also obtain coordinates of the same object from Google Maps, are these lat and lon coordinates identical or is there a deviation between the coordinates recorded by high precision receiver and the coordinates derived from the software?
Sorry for my question, but I am not a GIS expert, just a biologist, so I am a little bit confused regarding that. I need to know it for field measurement purposes.