When Cyberman Attacks Google Maps

Update: The Cyberman has now been removed from Google Maps. Boo!

The trouble with crowd-sourced maps is that sometimes you can't trust the crowd. Google has occasionally had trouble with people using Google Map Maker to make less than accurate changes to Google Maps.

Google Map Maker edits have to be approved by moderators and this usually works in stopping the most obvious attempts to vandalize Google Maps. However the occasional prank edit does sneak past the moderators and make it on to Google Maps for real.


When the Google Street View caught something strange going on in a back street of Manchester, someone decided it would be a good idea to rename Temperance Street in Manchester. Google fairly quickly changed the name back to Temperance Street but I suspect that the name 'Hand Job Alley' just might have caught on locally.



The latest prank edit to appear on Google Maps is this picture of a Cyberman, which has appeared near a lake in Merthyr Tydfil.


I'm assuming of course that this is a joke edit made to Google Maps. I guess that there is a chance that the sudden appearance of picture of a Cyberman in Wales might have something to do with the secretive Torchwood Institute in nearby Cardiff.