Google is asking millions of users to
hunt for buried treasure using a new pirate-style "treasure mode" on
its maps.
The company posted a video on YouTube
explaining how Street View's "underwater team" discovered a chest
containing lost maps belonging to pirate William "Captain" Kidd
during an expedition to the Indian Ocean.
The video explains how hidden treasure symbols can be unearthed
on the maps, which have been digitised by a special 3D nanoscanner.
Google marketing manager Mike Pegg says: "The map is
rumoured to contain the clues to Captain Kidd's long lost treasure, however the
map contains encrypted symbols and codes and is not readily decipherable.
"Therefore, we're introducing treasure mode on Google Maps
and inviting the whole world to come together in the search for clues."
The treasure mode - accessed in the top-right corner of the
Google Maps window - includes a telescope-style Street View function, with
sepia-tinged images of streets across the globe.
Google claims hidden symbols can be uncovered by shining
sunlight on a computer screen, by joining phone and tablet maps together like a
puzzle, or even by heating a laptop over the hob.
The company's contribution to April Fools' Day follows last
year's prank, when it claimed an 8-bit version of Google Maps
had been developed for Nintendo's NES games console.
Google also released a YouTube clip ahead of April 1 declaring
that the world's most popular video website would shut down at the stroke of
midnight.
The three-minute
video, intended as a gag, described how the website would wind down
as some 30,000 technicians begin to trawl through 150,000 clips to select the
world's best video.
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