Google went the extra mile for this year’s April Fool’s. The company incorporated the internationally known game, Where’s Waldo? into their Google Maps app, with the intention of entertaining billions on the joke-filled festivity instead of annoying them.
Google has been known for spreading fake news on the holiday, but this year, they decided to create rather than torture our minds with what is real and what is not.
How to play Where’s Waldo on Google Maps
In order to use this new feature, users should update the application on their device. When the app opens, Waldo will show up waving at the consumer from the left side of the screen. Once he is clicked, the search is on.
When introducing himself, Waldo further explains his functions and the added features he includes, “The fun doesn’t stop there,” the search giant (as Waldo) states, “Once you spot me, you’ll be transported to places all around the world, where you can search for me over and over again. Incredible! You can win wonderful and wacky badges throughout your journey by finding me and my friends. Remember, there’s Woof (but all you can see is his tail), Wenda, Wizard Whitebeard, and Odlaw.”
The game takes the user to places as he plays on, with a new intricate spot in which Waldo hides. When the player manages to spot Waldo, it moves them up to the next level.
Google keeps the April Fool’s tradition alive
With the thought and hopes of staying foolish in mind, Google Maps’ product managers, Max Greenwald and Shreena Thakore, both of them fresh out of school, thought it would be a cool idea to add a Where’s Waldo feature into their app, especially with the Pac-Man and Mrs Pac-Man integration to Google, it was the added fun Google Maps very much needed.
Greenwald and Thakore, both twenty-three years old, have been brainstorming ideas for April Fools since January, with Greenwald stating: “As we were growing up, we would check out what Google was up to for April Fools’,” he says, “Now that we work here, we were like, ‘Sweet! We should try it for ourselves.’”
This is the second time in less than a month’s time that Google includes a classic brand or feature into their system for a limited time. In March, in celebration of Mario Day, users of the app were able to switch the regular navigation arrow with Nintendo’s very own Mario inside a kart.
Source: Google