Google Maps, quite recently got smacked by a peculiar bug that somehow swapped the Google icons primarily for hotels in Europe and other locales with “Swastikas”, an ancient sign of prosperity.
Reportedly, some of the perplexed users in Europe, Puerto
Rico along with other parts of the world brought the information to the notice
of the authorities.
The Google app which has “beds” as icons for hotels was
struck by a bug that morphed the icon into that of a “Swastika”.
Google Map replied by saying that the sign is a Buddhist symbol
that represents a place of worship and not a “Swastika” in actuality. They also
alluded that they’re up and about working on the bug fix.
Apparently, one of the users in confusion uninstalled and
reinstalled the application and found out that the situation was back to
normal.
The baffled users in other parts of the world than Europe
also came across this strange issue and took to twitter to voice their
impression on the subject.
One of the users from the capital of Ireland alluded on the
topic by sending a few tweets where they imparted the glimpses of the “bed-bug”.
The “Swastika”, after the terrorizing reign of Hitler had
and has become identical with the Nazi sentiment but well before that, the Buddhist
symbol always meant power and prosperity.
The rationale behind the entire bug situation could be the
fact that Google Maps has a feature that lets users look at locations by ‘points
of interest’.
Every “Point of interest” has its own symbol corresponding to
it, like a ‘fork and knife’ for restaurants and a ‘shopping bag’ for shopping
centers.
But as the further developments went, the fact emerged that the
icon in question was always meant to represent Buddhist temples, especially in
places where it still is considered as a “Religious sign”.
Despite the aforementioned fact, Google established that the
sudden appearance of the “Swastika” or Buddhist symbol is an accident and it is
not supposed to be on the Maps.