This February 8, 2020, Google Maps will be turning 15, but let’s take a look back a little bit to what happened on the first day of February this year which concerns Google Maps. 

Just this February first, 2020, a few days before Google Maps’ 15th founding anniversary, an artist in Berlin pulled a trick on Google Maps with his act which he called the “Google Maps Hacks.” How did he do it exactly? This artist, Simon Weckert, walked along the streets of Berlin while pulling his small red cart. Doesn’t sound like something that would concern Google Maps, right? Well, to add on that, the red cart contains 99 second-hand phones which are piled up together in just one location. These were what made it possible for Weckert to pull a trick on Google Maps, making it think that these phones were stuck on slow-moving traffic.

This unusual act resulted in driving Google Maps to give out traffic jam alerts along the streets Weckert was passing by. “Through this activity, it is possible to turn a green street red which has an impact in the physical world by navigating cars on another route to avoid being stuck in traffic,” Simon Weckert mentioned in a statement on his website.

It can be seen in the YouTube video that was released on February 1, 2020 that the roads along the River Spree appear to be empty. Based on the video, Weckert’s plan really worked well. His trick didn’t just trended in YouTube with its more than 3 Million views but also became wide-spread and talked about in other social media platforms and in the internet in general with the hashtag #googlemapshacks.

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