There’s a giant Android robot urinating on an Apple logo in Google Maps RIGHT NOW

Quick, before Google notices: go to this Google Maps destination (make sure you’re in Map view, not Satellite view) and tell me what you see. No, it’s not the oddest-shaped golf course you’ve ever seen — it’s a picture of an Android robot urinating on an Apple logo. You know, the one we’ve seen depicted time and time again since Android’s existence.

We’re not sure who. We’re not sure why. We’re not sure how. And we’re not sure when Google will finally notice this and take it down. But it’s something you owe it to yourself to see even if you have nothing against Apple and don’t care for the everlasting feud between the two sides.

PS: Can’t click links? You can also type the coordinates in manually. Simply enter 33°30’52.5″N 73°03’33.2″E into the search box.

[Update]: Well, we can probably explain the “how” by now. It appears this may be the work of someone using Google Map Maker, a custom map-enhancing tool that allows users to submit changes, updates and enhacnements to maps of their local area for use on the public version of Google Maps.

It’s likely that someone submitted these custom maps, and a moderator simply approved them without checking to see what, exactly, the map changes consist of. Here’s a passive plea by someone who used to same method to bring about a better review policy for custom maps:

So there you have it. Might want to get that taken care of, Google. [via]

[via Engadget]

Google Map Maker submissions temporarily suspended after peeing robot incident

This is why we can’t have nice things, folks. Google has announced that they will be temporarily suspending Google Map Maker submissions following a recent incident. That incident, if you missed it, saw one rogue map editor uploading malicious maps.

One of the maps was a photo of an Android robot peeing on the Apple logo, and it was visible to anyone who knew the coordinates to type in over at Google Maps. It was a bit funny, but it was just as immature and came with the consequence we’re faced with today.

The natural step for Google was to begin manually reviewing each map submission, but the company’s backlog of reviews has gotten so large that they’ve been unable to handle new submissions in a timely manner. As such, they’ll instead opt to suspend submissions altogether while they improve the automated parts of their review process.

Unfortunately they don’t have a timeline for when the feature will return, though that did assure us that this is a temporary situation. “Temporary” could be as little as a day and as long as a decade, of course, so without an estimate it’s hard to know if we’ll see it return anytime soon. On the bright side, the guy who made these submissions’ say his end goal was to get Google to strengthen their map review process. We’d say his mission was aced with flying colors.

[via Google]