Who added this Android peeing on Apple in Google Maps?

There's probably a subtext to this Android relieving himself all over an Apple logo embedded in Google Maps, but I'm darned if I can think what it is. While usually you go to Google's navigation tool to figure out where the nearest Starbucks is, or even to find a public restroom, an act of digital graffiti has added some platform-related posturing instead.

Spotted by Team Android, the oversized 'droid is found near Rawalpindi, Pakistan, and at time of publication is still visible.

The cartoon graphic is unlikely to be the handiwork of a Google employee – though stranger things have happened – but rather an unchecked addition through one of Google's own mapping tools.

Google Map Maker is intended to allow members of the public to tweak and amend incorrect or incomplete mapping data, adding new roads or deleting old ones, perhaps, that the official providers are yet to get to. It's been something of a crowdsourcing feather in Google's cap, too, with the company even offering prizes in India in 2013 for those who made the most improvements to the maps.

Officially, Map Maker changes are supposed to be checked over before they go live. According to Google's own FAQ, "Changes suggested on Google Map Maker need to be reviewed before they become part of the data on Google Maps."

However that editing process is also crowdsourced. While it's hard to imagine a trusted editor giving it the instant green-light, were the graphic to convince sufficient regular users it was accurate, there's a chance it could make it through without anybody at Google seeing it.

VIA Team Android

SOURCE Google Maps

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