Boo-gle? Google shares its creepiest Maps views for Halloween
A ghost plane and a portal to another dimension star in a spooky collection of weird Google Maps images.
Something weird this way comes on Google Maps .
Google is getting into the Halloween mood with a collection of bizarre and spooky screenshots culled from Google Maps Street View and satellite imagery.
This bizarre Street View of the Manhattan Bridge has a perfectly normal explanation.
Google Communications Manager Liz Davidoff compiled the blog entry, listing her title as "Goblin Queen." The images are eerie, but Davidoff quickly debunks any hint at supernatural activity.
The compilation kicks off with what could pass as a portal to another dimension. The shot is colorful and makes it look like driving across the Manhattan Bridge in New York would send you on a Doctor Who-style journey.
The reality is that the weirdness was caused by a lighting issue. "The colors and graininess of this image are due to something many amateur photographers are familiar with -- low light," says Davidoff.
This ghost plane isn't as spooky as it appears.
Another standout is a satellite view of what appears to be a ghostly airplane sunk in the dark waters of Lake Harriet in Minnesota. Again, Davidoff is here to ruin the mystery for us. She says it's just an artifact of a plane flying over while the satellite snapped the view.
Davidoff also included a classic human ghostly apparition, this one from the Singapore Art Museum, where a person's arm and leg appear to be cut off from the rest of the body. There's also a shot of Darth Vader taking out the trash in New Zealand.
Apparently, Lord Vader's servants had the day off.
The Google Maps images are a perfect way to get in the mood for the spine-chilling happenings of Halloween. They also tell some interesting tales about the technology behind Google Maps and how it's true that not everything we see is as it seems at first glance.
