Google Street View drivers have captured some bizarre, unnerving sights over the years, and these are some of the creepiest.
Google Earth has been been a pastime of school children and procrastinating adults ever since it launched in 2001, allowing any user click-and-you're-there transportation to anywhere in the world: maybe it's your childhood street; maybe you want to see where a celebrity lives; or maybe you want fly over somewhere you've never been.
Surfing the globe got a serious upgrade in 2007 with the inception of Google Street View, taking people on-foot across the planet courtesy of Google's fleet of camera-fitted vehicles. However, this has led to some strange images. You can see some of the creepiest below:
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On TikTok, @googlemapsfun is an account which speaks for itself: it absolutely loves Google Maps and all its secrets.
In a new upload, which is on track for 10 million views on the platform, you can see a handful of weird things captured by Google Street View.
Up first is a person in Fukushima, Japan, who appears to be standing completely still in a car park space, 'acting like a car'.
You also can't see their face properly. What could they be doing? Just waiting for a mate, perhaps, or maybe they're a ghost, or something even more sinister.
Next up is a family's home in Detroit. In 2009, a couple can be seen sitting on the porch, even affording the Google vehicle a little wave.
Four years later, the house is derelict and wrecked, covered in dodgy graffiti with baby dolls hanging off window sills.
A few years after that, the house has disappeared from view entirely (it was likely demolished).
The last one, by the account's own admission, is rather sad.
It shows an ordinary roundabout in Ukraine in 2015, before fast-forwarding to now, apparently showing where the same area has been battered by Russia's invasion.
It should be noted we haven't been able to verify if these final images said to be from Ukraine are actually genuine Google Maps shots - after all, it does stretch credulity that Google are updating street view in the middle of a war.
Some people remain unconvinced by the creepiness of it all.
One user wrote: 'People know when Google drivers are coming so they get prepared and do something funny, that explains the lady plus the waving.'
Another commented: 'New fear unlocked - I'll be minding my business and someone will say I was pretending to be a car.'
If you would like to donate to the Red Cross Emergency Appeal, which will help provide food, medicines and basic medical supplies, shelter and water to those in Ukraine, click here for more information
Topics: Technology, Google, Google Maps, TikTok
Cameron Frew