While many of the people unwittingly captured by the Google Street View cameras are just going about their daily business, every now and again the impressive technology manages to catch some truly incredible scenes.
Sometimes that can mean a trippy optical illusion due to a glitch or someone having a snooze in the street after a night out... but sometimes it's as simple as a man in his novelty Thanos glove hanging out by the bins.
A Twitter user called Marshall Julius (@MarshallJulius) shared a photo of his moment of fame, admitting he never actually knew he'd been papped by the Google cars until a neighbour popped round with his son to have a gawp at the 'Famous Google Maps Thanos Guy'.
Advert
The self-confessed ‘nerd’ said: “My neighbour popped round with his son. He wanted to meet me as, at least in their house, I'm the ‘Famous Google Maps Thanos Guy’.
“Turns out I was snapped on Street View a few years ago!”
And before you thought it was a legacy only appreciated in their neighbourhood, someone else commented on Twitter to say they’d seen the photo online before but never knew who it was.
They wrote: “I've seen this photo before and I didn't realize it was you! Awesome times ten.”
Advert
Many others said the image was ‘awesome’ and ‘badass’, with one saying: “This is possibly the greatest thing ever!”
Another agreed: “I love everything about that.”
Some people, meanwhile, took the opportunity to unleash their own inner nerd - making a number of references to the Marvel character.
One said excitedly: “I knew it! Thanos is real!”
Another quipped: “What do you mean, you were snapped? You're the one with the glove.”
Advert
A third said: “Clever, use the time stone to get the bins out on time.”
Google Maps even once helped solve the mystery of a man who went missing in Florida - his remains found submerged in a car some 20 years after he disappeared.
The mystery of where 40-year-old William Moldt disappeared to in 1997 had left cops stumped, but it was solved after someone spotted a sunken car in a pond on Google Maps and called in the police to investigate.
His remains were found back in 2019 inside the submerged vehicle in a pond in Wellington, near Palm Beach, after the manager of The Grand Isles housing development spotted them on Google Earth.
Advert
The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office said Moldt was reported missing in November 1997, but that the disappearance had remained unsolved with no new clues.
Back in 1997, the area where he was found was a building site.
After being called out to the scene, cops determined the car had likely been there for a long time due to the condition it was in.
Upon hauling it out of the water, the remains were discovered and handed to the medical examiner's office to process them and get an identity.
A report from the The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System states Moldt had left a nightclub on the evening of 7 November.
Advert
He had called his girlfriend at around 9.30pm to tell her he would be home soon, but had not been heard from since.
The report explained that Modlt was a quiet man who did not socialise much, saying: "He also was not a frequent drinker but did have several drinks at the bar."
It added that he did not appear intoxicated and left alone in his vehicle.
Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office told the BBC in 2019 that Moldt is presumed to have lost control of his vehicle, and in turn ended up driving into the pond.
Topics: Google Maps, Viral
Jess Hardiman