Google’s PAC-Maps Gets April Fools’ Ball Rolling Early, Turns Google Maps Into Pac-Man Video Game

Today's PAC-Maps release is most likely the first of many April Fools' Day gags from Google.

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Google pac-map screen
And we’re off!

Google has started its April Fools’ festivities a day early with today’s release of PAC-Maps, a new Google Maps feature that lets users play Pac-Man via various Google Maps locations.

[pullquote]With this update, we’ve added imagery of dangerous virtual beings, starting with Pinky, Blinky, Inky and Clyde.[/pullquote]

To play, open a Google Maps location and click on the Pac-Man map option in the bottom left of the screen.

Google Maps pac-man

“When navigating fruit-filled streets, determine at a glance which turns to pass to evade ghosts and get where you’re going safely,” writes Google Maps product manager Michelle Luo. She goes on to say that PAC-maps is “just the beginning” and mentions more possible April Fools’ features, including zombie incident alerts and intergalactic street views.

According to the announcement, users can play PAC-Maps on both their desktop and mobile devices.
pacmap mobile


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Amy Gesenhues
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Amy Gesenhues was a senior editor for Third Door Media, covering the latest news and updates for Search Engine Land, MarTech and MarTech Today. From 2009 to 2012, she was an award-winning syndicated columnist for a number of daily newspapers from New York to Texas. With more than ten years of marketing management experience, she has contributed to a variety of traditional and online publications, including MarketingProfs, SoftwareCEO, and Sales and Marketing Management Magazine. Read more of Amy's articles.

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