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While using Google Maps' turn-by-turn directions, I received the instruction: "Turn left at Kevin the Drummer onto NW Leahy Terrace." There was nothing unusual about the intersection. So, what the hell?
—Seattle Jane
I have to apologize, Jane. Your question led to so much interesting information that there may not be room in this week's column for the usual complement of dick jokes.
Luckily, Jane provided a screenshot rather than just raving incoherently about black helicopters like you guys usually do, so I was able to reproduce the anomaly.
There are three possible explanations for something like this. The first is that it's a copyright trap. Mapmakers often insert small, made-up features into their products to bust other mapmakers who copy their work.
It might also be an "Easter egg," a cute trick hidden in software for users to find. Google loves these, and plenty of them have been found in Google Maps and Google proper. (And also in Google+, but who cares.) Google "do a barrel roll," "askew," or "zerg rush" to see some examples.
Finally, it may be a user-inserted prank. You may recall a flap back in April, when a picture of Google's Android logo peeing on Apple's logo turned up in Google Maps. This was made possible by Google Map Maker, a crowdsourcing project that allowed regular users to "update" Google's maps.
The Map Maker program was suspended in May, but some prank edits still survive. A source at Google confirmed that "Kevin the Drummer" is one of these.
Unfortunately, since I did the right thing (like an asshole) and contacted Google for comment rather than just making shit up, they now know about this. Kevin may be gone by now—check the directions from "NW Leahy Rd. and 107th Ave." to "NW Leahy Terrace and Sundown Way" to find out.
WWeek 2015
