Thursday, February 01, 2007

The Flyover

So a bit of a debacle last weekend here in Sydney. Google Maps, the online service which everyone likes to play with and zoom into their apartment / house / wherever, announced a large public event for their next flyover. They encouraged Sydneysiders through various media outlets to go nuts during the hours of 9am - noon, when their plane would be flying over the city to photograph the latest images for their service.

People went absolutely ape shit. The second coming of our lord and saviour, Jesus Christo, couldn't have drawn a bigger response. There were human lawn spellings, large banners unfurled on beaches and roofs, people painting the tops over their cars, thrown babies in the air, a general state of anarchy all for the hope of being able to zoom in on oneself. It had all the feeling of a cult waiting for a comet from the sky to deliver them to their magic spaceship, full of Keds and black turtlenecks.

Knowing that the second coming of his son wouldn't have upstaged this event, the big boss man in the sky decided to step in. Low clouds prevented the Google Plane from being able to fly its' circuitous route and snap from the heavens. Of course, nobody told the people who spent all morning setting up their home made publicity stunt. There were failed marriage proposals, lack of advertisement for the local municipal council seat and a general distaste for this technology we call Google. In my favorite aussie accent, commonfolk were yelling 'it was a bloody outrage!'.

posted by ncawthon at 8:27 PM