Somewhere in Pakistan, in the outskirts of a city not too far from Islamabad, lies a park that appears to look like an Android peeing on an Apple. Or at least that’s what Google Maps used to show.
Because it appears that in real life, no such park actually exists.
A resident of Lahore, Pakistan made a shocking discovery last Friday when he tried to use Google Maps to take a closer look at Rawalpindi, a city southwestern of the country’s capital, while he was trying to locate a place in the area.
Ahmad Babar, who is a former Samsung employee, did not, at the least, expect to find a hidden surprise in Google Maps.
On the app’s ‘satellite’ as well as ‘hybrid’ view, everything seems normal. The place looks like a residential area, with some hills as well as green spaces that appear to be land covered by grass.
But when you switch to ‘standard’ view, that’s when you’ll see Google’s Android robot performing an act nothing short of bullying on Apple’s logo.
Upon seeing the offensive image, Babar decided to post the illustration on Facebook.
It wasn’t long before Google picked up the news— and they were quick to deny that the illustration was a doing of any of their employees.
Apparently, the information shared on Google Maps are from vetted contributors that make sure Google Maps is accurate and always updated.
The illustration, which appears to be an obvious insult against Android’s rival, Apple, seemed to have come from one of Google Maps’ vetted contributors.
“The vast majority of users who edit our maps provide great contributions, such as mapping places that have never been mapped before,” said Google spokeswoman Caroline Matthews.
“We’re sorry for this inappropriate user-created content; we’re working to remove it quickly.”
Hours after the illustration of Android’s robot committing an offensive act against a helpless apple has been found, Google took down the funny (and offensive) image.
Slashgear later on reported that a user that goes by the name of ‘nitricboy’ was behind the illustration, on which he apparently painstakingly poured a lot of effort to complete.
According to Slashgear, the offensive illustration was submitted by the user on separate occasions in the form of unsuspecting shapes which Google approved, before he was finally able to edit the illustration into the grand scheme he originally intended.
Apple chose to remain calm and has not released any statement regarding the matter.
I think it’s obvious that Google didn’t have a direct hand in this image, but it’s pretty hilarious nonetheless. I would assume that a lot of worldwide data comes from third parties rather than directly from Google and its Street Cars. I’m surprised this little “easter egg” wasn’t discovered a lot sooner than it was, though perhaps it hasn’t been there the whole time.