You know how every time you pull up Google Maps on your phone it says that it’s in beta and you shouldn’t always trust the directions? Well, now we have some pretty hard evidence that Google Maps can get things phenomenally (and hilariously) wrong.
Yesterday, people found a very peculiar image near the city of Rawalpindi in Pakistan, far out of the way of the eyes of prying Americans. The image, made out of a field on top of barren land, was of the Android mascot (Android being a property of Google) taking a piss on the Apple logo. We kid you not, this thing was on Google maps for all to see, and at time of writing, it seems like some people can, and some people can’t see it, depending on when their last Google maps update was. Some people originally called it an Easter Egg, but by the looks of things (especially since Google is working so quick to take the image down) it actually appears like something got past Google’s review process. Oh, and just to make things clear, the image doesn’t show up on satellite view, so there isn’t actually a field shaped like this in the real world, although if there was it would be awesome.
A few miles to the east, we saw yet another example of Google Map vandalism. In a field, we saw written in white letters “Google Review Policy is Crap” accompanied by a sad face. Once again, this does not show up on satellite view, so aliens putting down some brand loyal crop circles is unfortunately a ruled out theory.
Both of these additions were apparently added through Google Map Maker, a feature that allows users to contribute to maps by adding details such as street names, parks, places of interest, and more. This content is usually closely moderated, especially when it comes to names of places. However, the review process for remote fields appears to be slightly less stringent, especially if they are far enough removed from central Google locations.
That being said, Google maps has been vandalized in more significant ways, with fake buildings and streets having shown up before. The most recent fake building showed up only a few weeks ago, when a building called Edward’s Snow Den showed up at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in D.C. Get it? Edward Snowden? At the White House’s address?
Have you found any other instances of Google Maps vandalism? Do you think that these are harmless pranks, or serious problems for anyone trying to get around using Google’s navigation tools? Let us know what you think in the comments.